Bringing Shane Mosley 'to the table' not enough for Naazim Richardson vs. Floyd Mayweather -- Grand Rapids Press

By David Mayo, The Grand Rapids Press

Naazim Richardson, a veteran boxing trainer, left a veteran boxing writer completely baffled this week. In two weeks, Richardson will send Shane Mosley into the ring against Floyd Mayweather, the perimeter-dancing paragon of pugilistic perfection, so it presumably is the trainer’s job to instruct Mosley how to trap the Grand Rapids native and stop the pussy-footing -- cutting off the ring, in fistic parlance -- so as to turn the boxing match into a rumble.

Richardson refused to acknowledge as much.

We have to believe, at this point, that Mosley’s trainer knew he was talking to Mayweather’s hometown newspaper, and somehow extrapolated that out to consider it unwise to make even the most obvious concession in such a publication, as if any of that malarkey matters in the Internet era, when everybody’s local newspaper is an international publication. Just point and click.

Anyhow, when asked point-blank how to cut off the ring against Mayweather, in a question predicated on the predilection that Mosley’s best option is a fight rather than a jabbing competition in their May 1 welterweight showdown, Richardson balked.

Balked may be putting it mildly.

"First of all, I haven't read the passage that says you have to cut the ring off,” Richardson said. “Nobody's gotten that documentation to me yet. The gameplan I have is I'm bringing Sugar Shane Mosley to the table. I'm not bringing those other 40 guys that he (Mayweather) fought. I'm bringing Sugar Shane Mosley -- I'm bringing another decorated, documented legend to the table. So some of the questions are going to have be asked of Floyd Mayweather, and what he's going to have to do to deal with Sugar Shane Mosley."

Wait. What?

Let’s get this straight: We’re supposed to buy into the concept that Mosley can defeat Mayweather without the time-honored tactic of cutting off the ring?

"You cut off the ring if that's your purpose, to engage in that battle -- you cut off the ring,” Richardson said. “If you don't choose to cut off the ring, you don't have to cut off the ring. You can't document too many fights where Muhammad Ali had to cut off the ring. Cutting off the ring is a procedure you take when you're trying to apply a certain tactic. We may not be applying that tactic, so cutting off the ring may not fall under the umbrella of what we're doing."

Ali at his best wasn’t generally the stalker, by the way. He was the mover, the dancer, in much the same method Mayweather prefers, and the only time he absolutely fought anyone better at it was against Larry Holmes, when he was too old and shopworn to do anything but pass the torch.

Mayweather, at 33, given the choice between passing the torch and burning down his “Big Boy Mansion,” might just flame it and call the insurance company.

Mayweather-Mosley isn’t a pure matador vs. bull matchup, as Sugar Ray Robinson dubbed his historic six-pack of bouts against rugged Jake LaMotta, because Mosley can box plenty, and Mayweather has blasted out some top-shelf opponents.

But generally speaking, Mayweather is the purer boxer, and more likely to employ ring movement, while Mosley is the purer banger, and more likely to stalk.

Mosley and Richardson are relatively new to each other, although they already share a unique niche. In their only fight together, Richardson found plaster concealed in Antonio Margarito’s handwraps just minutes before Mosley blew him out, a wise disclosure for Mosley and fraudulent exposure for Margarito, who remains suspended more than a year later.

Yet Richardson’s response to something as simple as cutting off the ring against a master boxer seemed bizarre.

"Nobody said we're going to come in and fall into the same cookie-cutter ideology as these other athletes, and the approach they've taken, when dealing with Floyd Mayweather,” he said. “We're bringing Sugar Shane to the table."

And if Sugar Shane does nothing but follow Mayweather around the table, you’ll be sweeping him up with the crumbs.

E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo

Source: mlive.com