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The Curious Case of Sugar Shane Mosley: What's Next?

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The Curious Case of Sugar Shane Mosley: What's Next?

When Sugar Shane Mosley faced off against Oscar De La Hoya for the first time, he was arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.  After the second victory over Oscar De La Hoya, he showed his championship pedigree.

He gave a shot to a hungry, bigger Vernon Forrest, who capitalized on the first gash Mosley had received in the ring, and won a decision.

People suggested that he was overmatched by the size, and I agree.  Mosley was overmatched by the size of his heart.

Case in point: Winky Wright.

A young, bigger, and talented fighter with the hunger for more, Mosley gives him a shot, and loses. Then he suffers the same fate in the rematch. The size of his heart was his worst enemy.

He could have back-pedaled and fought a more "glamorous" fighter, but he acted as a true champion.

The fact of the matter is Sugar Shane Mosley never lost a fight to anyone his size. In fact, he wasn't challenged until the De La Hoya fights. His knockout ratio for his fights won are extremely high.

Miguel Cotto was the first fighter near his size to actually defeat Shane, and that fight's result is still debatable. In fact, I had Shane winning that fight seven rounds to five.

With Miguel Cotto losing to Antonio Margarito by TKO, Mosley saw his opportunity.  He really had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It was noted in the fight that he was going through a divorce as well, and as a man, I know that it has to be really tough losing a partner for many years.

When I found out this detail, I told everybody in the room, "I feel like he is going to fight with more passion than he ever has tonight."

There are only a few things more frustrating than a divorce, and I felt that Mosley has been such a professional for so long, that he would channel whatever feelings he had about it into energy.

Margarito has been labeled "The Bully" of the welterweight class, but it looked like he was the kid getting his lunch money taken in the schoolyard.

The performance that Shane Mosley put on against Margarito catapults him back into the pound-for-pound discussion.  He broke Margarito's will by keeping him close, hitting with short power shots to the body and head. 

At one point I was asked who had the best shot to defeat Mayweather, and I said "Sugar Shane."

Truthfully, I was discouraged by the Cotto outcome, because I believe he was the better fighter, and he didn't give it his all in that fight. 

There were rounds in the Cotto-Mosley fight in which it looked like Mosley was not executing.

I've noticed that Cotto is very vulnerable in fights beyond the seventh round. The only man with the will to press him was the man who actually knocked him out: Margarito.

Understanding that Margarito may have cheated against Cotto, I would love to see Cotto avenge his loss to Margarito first.  In the process of those two doing that, I would love to see Mayweather come out of retirement and fight Sugar Shane Mosley. 

If those two fights come to fruition, Cotto will get his revenge in a close fight, and Sugar will triumph over Floyd.  Those results would set up a Cotto-Mosley II, which I believe will have a more spirited Shane fighting. 

The Curious Case of Shane Mosley is the fact that he was crowned the best welterweight in the world after knocking out Margarito, the man who lost a close fight to Paul Williams, knocked out Cotto, and has been ducked by anyone worth fighting. 

On Jan. 24, before the bell rang, people were saying that Mosley would be fighting his last major fight.

Cotto has been knocked out, Margarito has been knocked out, Hatton has been knocked out, De La Hoya as well. 

Even in defeat, Sugar Shane has never suffered a knockout loss, so how could one fight against a person with five losses against no one greater than Vernon Forrest be pitted as his last "big one"?

Logically speaking, the best fight out there that can be made is Floyd Mayweather (who has never been defeated, much less knocked out) versus the Curious Case that is Sugar Shane Mosley, who seemed just as great against Margarito as he has ever been.

The Curious Case that is the welterweight division is arguably the most exciting thing in sports because of the parody.

You can make a great case for any of the top contenders as to why they are the best.  I want to keep guessing, and being confused, because that makes it worth writing about. 

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