Thursday 29 April 2010

Shane Mosley says he will knock Floyd Mayweather out -- BBC Sport

BBC Sport

Shane Mosley says he is confident of causing an upset and inflicting a first defeat on Floyd Mayweather when they meet in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Mosley, 38, is the underdog for the non-title welterweight encounter, but is still predicting a knockout.

"I'll go for a knockout, but I'll be shocked to see him laying there on his back like that," said Mosley.

"The key is going to be speed and power. I'm in the best shape of my life and I'm not worried about ring rust."

Mosley, who has 46 wins from 52 fights, has not fought since a ninth-round stoppage of Antonio Margarito in January 2009, but far from being worried about his long sabbatical, he is drawing inspiration from that shock win.

"They were picking Margarito to win by a landslide, and people were worried about my health and saying he was going to retire me," added Mosley, whose WBA welterweight title is not up for grabs.

"I'm saying to you guys again, that isn't going to happen. He's not going to beat me.

"When the fight starts, I'm going to go out there, I'm going to throw some traps here and there, touch him here and there, see what's going on. I'll probably be able to tell from the first bell what kind of fight it's going to be."

While Mayweather, 33, has won most of his 40 bouts with relative ease, some observers have pointed to his split decision win over Oscar de la Hoya in May 2007 as providing the blueprint to defeating him.

De la Hoya troubled Mayweather in the first half of the fight with a stiff left jab, a shot that Mosley agreed could be key at the MGM Grand.

"It's been proven," added Mosley, a three-weight world champion. "Not just Oscar, but other fighters. Some of the southpaws fought him pretty good with their left hands. So maybe it's not a jab, maybe it's just a left hand.

"But that's just one strategy. I can't just base my fight on throwing a jab. You have to be ready for a bunch of different things, because you're fighting a special fighter."

Mayweather, who was set to fight Philippine superstar Manny Pacquiao before a row over pre-fight blood-testing derailed negotiations, said his defence would be his key weapon.

"It's that defence, you can't break through that defence," said five-weight world champion Mayweather. "It's not cool to take punches. If I was in a bunch of wars, I probably wouldn't be here giving you guys interviews right now.

"All I did was constantly beat whoever they put in front of me, I'm never going to get my just due. All these fighters they put in front of me, they've all been cake walks for me.

"I'm Floyd Mayweather - all the rest of them are just fighters."

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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