In one corner is 32-year-old challenger Floyd Mayweather Jr., a five-time champion with a spotless record of 40-0, 25 knockouts and has been virtually unhittable, if not untouchable, throughout much of his career.
In the other corner is 38-year-old WBC welterweight (147 pounds) super champion Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), who is ending a nearly 14-month layoff since a Jan. 24, 2009, ninth-round knockout victory over Antonio Margarito.
"You have the best meeting the best, and that's what the public wants to see," said Mayweather's adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, on Friday afternoon. "This is the biggest fight in boxing that can be made right now. This is two great American fighters, and the fans can't wait to see it."
According to Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather promotions, "the negotiations have gone very smoothly," and boxing fans may not have to wait much longer than May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to see Mayweather against Mosley.
"We're very close. Both sides have agreed to the deal points. Now, it's just a matter of the legal-beagle stuff," Ellerbe told FanHouse. "Working with [Golden Boy Promotions' CEO] Richard Schaefer and Team Mosley has been very smooth."
Ellerbe's assertion backs up a statement made by Golden Boy Promotions president, Oscar De La Hoya, on Tuesday during a Los Angeles press conference announcing a Feb. 25, junior welterweight (140 pounds) bout between Victor Ortiz and Hector Alatorre.
De La Hoya expressed confidence on Tuesday that a deal for Mayweather-Mosley was near completion, and Schaefer told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports on Thursday that an announcement of a May 1, welterweight clash between two of the sport's premiere pound-for-pound fighters was "imminent," adding, "I hope to have something to announce in the next few days."
"Shane Mosley is a tremendous fighter who has fought all of the top fighters of his era, and who had a very good amateur background. He went on, as a professional, to win three titles in as many different weight classes, so he's proven that he's been one of the top fighters of his day," said Ellerbe.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mosley's trainer [Nazim Richardson.] He's one of the top trainers in the sport, and he doesn't get the credit that he deserves -- even though he's been one of the top trainers for a number of years," said Ellerbe. "We know that Shane will come in and be well-prepared, but it won't be enough to beat Floyd."
Mayweather's recent negotiations for a proposed March 13 bout with Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) reached an impasse over the latter's refusal to give blood within 24 days of the fight.
Mayweather's camp wanted Pacquiao, who never has tested positive for any banned substance under boxing's urninalysis-based procedures, to adhear to both fighters being randomly blood-tested as close to 14 days of fight time.
The camps' inability to resolve the issue led to the fight's demise, and seven-division champion Pacquiao choosing to defend his WBO welterweight title against Joshua Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs) of Ghana on March 13 at The Dallas Cowboys' Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Meanwhile, Mosley (pictured right) was scheduled to face 26-year-old, WBC champ, Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KOs), on Jan. 30, before a distraught Berto pulled out of the fight as a result of the death of eight relatives during the recent earthquake in Haiti.
After Mayweather's unanimous decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in September, Mosley jumped into the ring, interrupted Mayweather's post-fight interview with Max Kellerman, and challenged the unbeaten fighter to face him.
In truth, however, it was Mayweather who initially began calling out Mosley 10 years ago, when the Pomona, California resident still was a 35-pound champion, and Mayweather, a 130-pound titlist.
"Floyd's been wanting to fight Shane Mosley since 1999," said Ellerbe, referring to the year when Mayweather still was the WBC's super featherweight king, and Mosley was the IBF's lightweight titlist. "Floyd's been asking for that fight for quite some time."
In April of that year, Mosley defended his IBF lightweight title for the last time with an eighth-round knockout of John Brown.
Mosley then skipped over the junior welterweight (140 pounds) division, jumping in Sept. 1999 right into the welterweight class.
Mosley scored consecutive 147-pound stoppages over Wlfredo Rivera and Willy Wise before earning a split-decision victory over De La Hoya that earned the WBC welterweight crown in June 2000.
In connection with the BALCO scandal of 2003, Mosley admitted during a grand jury testimony that he used the steroids, "the cream," and, "the clear," prior to defeating De La Hoya for what was the second time in their careers.
It was a win which earned Mosley the WBC and WBA junior middleweight (154 pounds) titles in Las Vegas in September of that year.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission's post-fight urinalysis did not detect banned substances in Mosley, who never has tested positive under boxing's current system.
Commission rules, nationwide, call for victorious boxers who susequently test positive to have their wins turned into no- contests. Mosley, however, still is officially credited with defeating De La Hoya.
Mayweather's camp has indicated that anyone he fights, from now until the end of his career, will be subject to random blood and urine testing.
"Unfortunatley, performance enhancing drugs are prevalent in American sports, and we want to champion this effort to change the perception of the way that boxing is looked at. It's unfortunate, but boxing has to catch up to what's going on in 2010. We need to be in a preventative mode as opposed to the other mode," said Ellerbe.
"It's too late once a guy already has fought, and he comes back after a fight and he tests positive for a banned substance. The damage already has been done," said Ellerbe
"Unlike any other sport, boxing is a brutal sport of hand-to-hand combat, where guys are taking a physical beating throughout a fight," said Ellerbe. "One punch could end a guy's career. For the betterment of the sport, health, and safety, boxing needs to be moving in that direction. Floyd's going to be out front championing this effort."
For that reason, Olympic-style drug-testing -- the same random blood-testing Mayweather's camp asked for during the negotiations against Pacquiao -- have been agreed to by Mosley, according to both sides.
De La Hoya told reporters earlier this week that he will advocate boxing commissions to institute tougher drug-testing policies such as those enforced by United States Anti-Doping Agency, which Mayweather's camp initially had asked to execute the procedures for Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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