SHANE MOSLEY PULLS OFF UPSET By Kenny Perrault, ringside

The MGM Grand Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada played host to Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley Saturday night in a fight billed as "Redemption." In their first meeting in 2000 Shane Mosley came through the victor, but this time WBC/WBA champion Oscar De La Hoya vowed things would be different.

Oscar started the fight as he planned working behind his jab and keeping Mosley at bay. Mosley seemed confused at times not knowing how to get to De La Hoya as Oscar pumped away with the jab. In round four the fighters would clash heads causing a cut on the side of Oscar's right eye that would bleed off and on throughout the fight. The rounds appeared to be a mimic of the previous with Oscar controlling the tempo of the fight with his jab. In round nine however the pace of the fight would change in Mosley's favor.

Shane Mosley began landing hard hooks to the side of Oscar's head which appeared to stun him and slow down his work input dramatically. In the tenth round the pace started off slow but in the final 30 seconds both fighters let leather fly, landing hard blows to both head and body. In the final two rounds both fighters looked tired at times but sucked it up, taking turns landing big shots.

All three judges saw the fight the same, scoring it 115-113 in favor of "Sugar" Shane Mosley. The crowd and many others saw it differently than the judges including yours truly, who scored it 116-111 in favor of "The Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya. The punch stats were all in Oscar's favor, showing that he landed 94 more punches than Mosley and threw 112 more punches than his foe.

In the post fight press conference Oscar announced that on Monday he will file a request for a full investigation on the scoring of the fight. Oscar also stated: "This is not sour grapes. It's nothing against Shane Mosley." Shane's reply was "I feel I won the fight. The fight could have went either way it was a close fight." But at the end of the night "Sugar" Shane Mosley walked away the champion, with a second professional win over childhood friend and boxing foe Oscar De La Hoya.

On the undercard 2000 Olympian and up and coming prospect Miguel Cotto took on Demetrio Ceballos. The fight scheduled for 12 was a WBA super light eliminator for the #1 spot. Cotto would land vicious left hands to Ceballos' body that would lead to serious work upstairs. Ceballos' best round would be the second but that would be it, as Cotto took over complete control for the rest of the fight. In the sixth round Cotto switched to the southpaw stance landing hard straight lefts to the head of Ceballos. Ceballos looked shaken several times in the sixth but would make it out and into the seventh.

However, the seventh round would spell doom for Demetrio as he continued to take punishment from Cotto until his corner stepped into the ring forcing the ref to stop the fight at 2:28 of the seventh round.

To open the first of the three PPV televised fights Juan Lazcano squared off against former champion Stevie "Little but bad" Johnston in a WBC lightweight eliminator for the number one ranking. Lazcano opened the first round by knocking down Stevie Johnston with a crisp straight right hand. Stevie would rise off the canvas throwing more punches than he did before the knockdown but Lazcano still added the pressure by landing nice shots to the body. In the second round it was Stevie Johnston who landed a counter right hand that seemed to buckle him for a moment. During the round Lazcano gets warned three times for hitting Johnston below the belt. The low blows had no effect on Johnston for the time being, as it was his turn to land a straight left hand that would send his opponent to the canvas. Lazcano would rise off the canvas and make it out of the round himself. During the middle rounds Johnston seemed content to lay on the ropes while Lazcano stayed busy landing shots to both the head and body.