On May 1, at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, unbeaten Floyd "Money" Mayweather "is going to be the hardest fight that he has ever had in his life."
"Everybody else Floyd has been 135 pounds or at around 140. He's not fought any real 147 pounders, other than Oscar de la Hoya, who gave him a lot of trouble," said Shane Mosley
, from his training camp in the mountains of Big Bear Lake, Calif., on Tuesday.
, from his training camp in the mountains of Big Bear Lake, Calif., on Tuesday."Right now, my weight is great. I'm probably weighing around 152-ish when I leave the gym. I look at Floyd as a natural welterweight -- a real 147-pounder. In fact, Oscar de la Hoya is the biggest guy that he's fought that was a big welterweight, and Oscar did well against him," said Mosley.
"I'm pretty sure that Floyd will feel more power in this fight that he will have ever had to feel," said Mosley. "And if I can get that knockout, if I get that one shot, and if I can get him hurt, then I'm going to be all over him."
That's how confident the 38-year-old Mosley (46-5, 39 knockouts) was feeling about defending his WBA welterweight (147 pounds) title against the 33-year-old, unbeaten Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) after having showered up following a morning workout just priot to shaking out with trainer, Naazim Richardson.
"I was 38-0 with 35 knockouts when I stepped into the ring and lost for the very first time, wo when you say 40-0, that doesn't mean a thing to me," said Mosley, referring to a January, 2006, unanimous decision to the late Vernon Forrest.
"All that it means is that I'll be the one giving him his first loss," said Mosley. "No disrespect, but I really don't think he's been in there with a fighter like me. I believe that when I beat Floyd, I will send him into retirement. May 1 will be Mayweather's first loss."
Mosley has owned a home in Big Bear since 2000, and has trained there since 1996. "I've been training in Big Bear, now, for the last 10 years, so this would be my spot. I've been sparring, I've been working with Brother Naazim on different things, strategies and stuff on how to approach the fight," said Mosley.
"I've been doing nine to 12 rounds. Usually, I can do 12 at the beginning of camp, because, basically, I'm always pretty much in shape. Today, I did a little bit of running, and I kind of shook out a little bit," said Mosley. "I had a pretty good session with Brother Naazim today for, like, hitting mits and stuff like that. I probably won't spar today. I don't spar everyday."
But when Mosley has sparred, lately, it has been with a versatile group such as 24-year-old, junior welterweight (140 pounds) Karl Dargan (7-0, three KOs), of Philadelphia.
Another goer has been 29-year-old Enrique Ornelas (29-6, 19 KOs), a durable fighter who has gone at middleweight (160 pounds), supermiddleweight (168 poounds), and, even at light heavyweight (175 pounds), and, whom Mosley calls, "a big body to punch on."
"We've got a couple of guys coming in there for speed. We're doing a couple of things, and we're getting him a few different looks. Dargan imitates Mayweather really well, but nobody actually fights like Mayweather. If they did, they'd be in their own camps getting ready to defend their belts," said Richardson, who also trains legendary middleweight and light heavyweight king, Bernard Hopkins.
"We're trying to get Shane in the best shape that we can, and if we get the best Shane Mosley, that should be enough to carry out our best plan," said Richardson. "Right now, I feel like Shane's really adopting what we're trying to get into, and he's so confident that I think we'll be in good shape."
Mosley believes that he is ready for anything that Mayweather has to offer.
"I expect him to expect him to fight in the center for a little while and to see what he can do with that, and I expect him to fight off of the ropes a little bit. I expect him to do whatever he can to try to disrupt and upset my rhythm," said Mosley.
"For a while, I think that we're both going to be playing the same game, but if I have an advantage of outboxing him, then I'll outbox him," said Mosley. "If I have an advantage of being stronger than him, then I'll use that. Whatever is at my advantage, I'll do."
Could Mosley's strategy involve being "a dictator" of the action, as he was against Margarito?
"Style-wise, Floyd just doesn't really like to engage in a fight until he's ready to engage. He has to be forced to engage in a real fight, which makes him different. Other fighters will try to engage and try to knock you out early and really fight you, where Floyd kind of boxes around, moves, touches, taps," said Mosley.
"Floyd is the type of fighter who, if he doesn't feel comfortable or confident, he's not going to fight you. So I have to be ready for that type of mentality that he has of touching and moving, touching and moving. I have to make it difficult for him to just touch and move," said Mosley. "So that's going to be one of the assignments is to make it harder for him to get his shots off so that he fights me a little bit. When he fights me, that will open him up for my speed and power."
A solid body attack could also be critical, said Mosley, adding, "But you just can't do one thing" against Mayweather.
"With Floyd, you have to focus on everything. You have to have a broad picture," said Mosley. "Maybe a couple of rounds, I'll focus on a body attack, and spend another round focusing just attacking. It will be a total package of things that I will want to do in there."
Not only will Mosley be fighting for only the third time in 30 months when he enters the ring against Mayweather, but he will also be ending a nearly 16 month ring absence since his last fight -- a January, 2009, ninth-round knockout victory which dethroned Antonio Margarito as WBA super world welterweight champion.
After losing his, November, 2007 bid for Miguel Cotto's WBA crown by 12-round, unanimous decision, Mosley rose to junior middleweight (154 pounds), where he stopped former world champion, Ricardo Mayorga, in the 12th round in September of 2008.
Still, Mosley contends that neither age, nor ring rust will be a factor against Mayweather, a man who, himself, will have fought once in 29 months -- September's lopsided, 12-round unanimous decision over Juan Manuel Marquez that ended a 21-month span between his December, 2007 10th-round stoppage of Ricky Hatton.
"Fortunately, I'm a guy who loves the boxing game and who loves to fight," said Mosley. "If I wasn't, then maybe the layoffs would have affected me if I wasn't into boxing the way that I am. I just like to train, and I just like to go to the gym."
Having been scheduled to face WBC king, Andre Berto (25-0, 19 KOs), on Jan. 30 before the latter pulled out of the fight amid distress for his Hatian relatives who were killed in a mid-January earthquake that rocked that island nation, Mosley said he was never far from being in fighting condition.
"I prepared myself for the Berto fight. The only thing that I didn't get to do was to get into the ring and fight. But I did an entire training camp getting ready for Andre Berto, which was a tough fighter -- very fast and quick," said Mosley.
"It may be considered a layoff, maybe, because of the people outside didn't get a chance to see me fight, but I was in great shape," said Mosley. "I was in training camp shape. And before that, I fought Antonio Margarito, and that was a great training camp."
Among the aspects that assists with Mosley's motivation, he said, is the presence of his son, 19-year-old Shane Mosley Jr. A 6-foot-1, 19-year-old, Mosley Jr. is a budding amateur who competes at 152, and, could soon rise to 165.
"My son has been with me since before the Margarito fight, and I think that my son being in boxing kind of helps me stay around the gym more, training him, showing him different things. I just want to show him the ropes, and show him the way that a boxer is supposed to behave," said the elder Shane Mosley.
"It's all about the mentality, because I believe that boxing is from the mind, not so much, how fast and how strong you are, but where you are mentally and how you focus and the determination and the will," said Mosley. "It's how you get into certain positions, and why you're in those positions, and why you throw those shots, and why you move your feet that way, and why you move your feet this way, why you're ducking, and why don't lean back."
Shane Mosley Jr., said the father, often spars with the same fighters as dad.
"When he gets in there sparring, I'm in there sparring too, with the same guys I'm sparring with. So he's learning very fast," said the elder Mosley. "I mean, I started at around 8 years old, but the knowledge that I have with him just being here and me watching him, it's making him get better and better faster and faster. And after I finish my duties shocking the world, I'll go ahead and give all of this to my son."
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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