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-Photo Credit: Martin Solis-
Saturday night in Los
Angeles, 30 year old, former WBA Welterweight titlist Antonio
“Tijuana Tornado” Margarito (37-6, 27 KO’s) saw his iron chin
turned to tin, as he was beaten in every round by 37 year old
“Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-5, 38 KO’s), who peppered Margarito with
his jab and hammered him with his right hand, silencing the
pro-Margarito crowd at the Staples Center as he broke Margarito
down, culminating in a knockout in the ninth round.
If this fight reminded
anyone of
Hopkins’ performance
against Kelly Pavlik a few months ago, the common denominator is
Mosley’s new trainer, Nasim Richardson, the same guy who trained
Bernard Hopkins for his fight against Pavlik, which produced a
similar result, minus the knockout. Seems that
Richardson is big on
being aggressive and fighting the full three minutes of every
round. It worked like a charm for Mosley against the slower
Margarito, who was unable to land many clean shots and whenever
he did, Mosley answered with double the trouble.
Shane Mosley has always been
a very good fighter, with quick hands, good body work,
respectable power, ring savvy and he’s a nice guy who’s easy to
root for. But what he showed on Saturday night was ‘the new and
improved’ Shane Mosley—a most dangerous fighter. As usual, Mosley
looked to be in great shape and forget about steroids, I doubt
Mosley is comfortable taking castor oil after the whole BALCO
scandal, which has been a source of much stress for the new WBA
titlist.
Mosley seemed to build on
the strategy he used against Cotto, only with more focus on being
the aggressor. The strategy was simple, take the fight to
Margarito, keep the jab popping to set up the right hands and
keep him out of any kind of rhythm. Mosley gets an A for
execution. I have been watching him fight for many years and this
was the most impressive performance I’ve ever seen from him.
After his fight with Ricardo
Mayorga last year, Mosley looked sluggish as both guys stumbled
into the late rounds of a fight where Mosley scored a knockout
with one click left on the clock. It was an impressive victory
with an asterisk, since Mayorga is quite faded by now and
actually was able to go a full twelve rounds against Mosley, who
has clearly taken better care of his body than Mayorga has over
the years.
Margarito’s last outing saw
him lose a majority of rounds to Miguel Cotto, who boxed outside,
darting in and out with offense and doing a lot of running in
between. Cotto certainly didn’t have the kind of chin that could
withstand too many shots from the bigger Margarito, who pressured
Cotto all night and taxed all his stamina by the late rounds,
which is when Margarito usually seems to get stronger. After
getting tagged repeatedly in the tenth, Cotto was ripe for the KO
in the eleventh, when he took a knee twice and ultimately
surrendered in the prayer position.
In Football, they say, “on
any given Sunday.” The same applies in boxing because on any
given night, who knows who will beat who in a well matched fight.
The thing is; I didn’t expect Mosley to bring so much energy and
focus into this fight, especially after what I saw in his last
outing. But a new trainer and a barrage of personal problems
somehow found Mosley focused like a laser beam and showing great
stamina against a man who usually gets stronger in the late
rounds and can definitely take a punch. Mosley landed so many
punches that Margarito went down in the eighth round and was
saved by the bell after beating the count.
Margarito’s corner wanted to
throw in the towel but Antonio implored his corner to let him
continue. In the next round, Shane went for the finish and
blasted Margarito from pillar to post until the referee, Raul
Caiz Sr. stepped between them to stop the fight only 43 seconds
into the round. Mosley wins by TKO 9. Wow!
And so the picture changes
again at Welterweight, possibly the most exciting division in
boxing. Too bad boxing don’t do allow for unified champions
anymore. In a perfect world, there’d be a tournament between the
major belt holders, which includes Andre Berto (WBC), Josh
Clottey (IBF) and Miguel Cotto, who is being set up to win the
WBO title in February when he fights little known Michael
Jennings (34-1, 16 KO’s) for the vacated WBO strap. Cotto
supposedly will fight a rematch against Antonio Margarito a few
months afterwards. It will be interesting to see what adjustments
both fighters make in that one. If Margarito is smart, he will
learn from this loss and be a better fighter for it. Same goes
for Cotto after losing to Margarito last year.
There’s been some talk of
Manny Pacquaio wanting to fight at Welterweight and that could
add some pepper to the soup. Tall Paul Williams is another guy
who floats from division to division and is a dangerous
proposition for anyone from 146-160 pounds. And it’s only
January! 2009 could be a year of great match ups. Time will tell.
Congratulations to Shane
Mosley! He showed that he still is a major force to be reckoned
with at Welterweight. The way Shane beat Margarito was so
impressive that if the ‘new and improved’ Shane Mosley can repeat
that kind of an effort, he could be the best fighter in the
division.
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Comments can be emailed to dshark87@hotmail.com
1-24-2009
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