LAS VEGAS -- Floyd Mayweather told some secrets, and withheld one, as the clock approached midnight in the Pacific time zone Saturday night.
Yes, he delayed his ring entry a bit to freeze Shane Mosley. Yes, that gladiator commercial used to pump the pay-per-view sales was his idea. Yes, that was real mink trim on his trunks and robe.
No, he would not disclose the hardest punch he ever took in a boxing ring, whether in sparring or a live fight.
“I won’t ever tell that,” he said. “That’s a certain secret that you keep to yourself and, when your career’s over, you tell it. It was a big puncher. I’ve done ran into some big punchers. But guess what? I light them up the same way though.”
In the afterglow of going 41-for-41 with a dominant unanimous decision victory, Mayweather came under assault with the usual array of questions about future opponents and ring dominance, his place in history and how to continue building his legacy.
The Grand Rapids native fielded some and slipped others as deftly as he did most of Mosley’s punches, until those concepts intersected in the one question he couldn’t slip, about the one punch he didn’t slip.
Actually, they were two punches, the second more damaging than the first, both in the middle of the second round, such that plenty of time was left for Mosley to jump him and finish the task of handing the most complete boxer of this era his first loss.
It was a crossroads moment in the career of a superstar.“Ain’t nothing cool about what happened in the second round,” Mayweather said.
Moments later, at almost the dead center of the ring, he blasted another right cross to the jaw, producing the most knee-buckling moment of Mayweather’s career.
Mayweather would insist later that he’s been hit harder, by DeMarcus “Chop Chop” Corley, who forced him to the ropes for some head-clearing in the fourth round of their 2004 fight, and by Zab Judah in a less-memorable moment in 2006.
While that may be true -- hey, he took the punches -- Mayweather never reacted as visibly to a punch in any previous bout as he did against Mosley.
“I could see in the second round, everybody was whooping and hollering and going crazy,” Mayweather said. “The only thing I thought about, I said ‘Just relax, stay focused.’ I mean, that comes with the territory in the sport of boxing. That comes with boxing. I’m a strong individual so I know what it took.”
He rallied late in the round and won the last half-minute. He went to his corner where “nobody was tripping.”
For a brief moment, Mayweather found the best of Mosley.
For the next 10 rounds, Mosley found the best of Mayweather, who dominated every round the rest of the way.
Prizefighters hurt and get hurt. History’s best do a lot of the former, and bounce back from the latter. For a moment, Mosley said he was “that close” to historic victory. For the next half hour, he found himself a victim of Mayweather’s ability to jab and set up right hands that couldn’t miss, and a virtually impenetrable defense.
“It was just me being able to show my versatility, and adapt and adjust to any opponent,” Mayweather said.
Mayweather said he thought, at one point, that Mosley was going “to cough it up” and get knocked out, but went into survival mode instead.
Undoubtedly, there came a point when Mosley knew he couldn’t win and lasting 12 rounds became the goal.
He was happy, he said, that two future Hall of Famers got to share the ring together.
And he was even happier to survive a moment that could have been the undoing of his perfect record, something that is never more than one punch away.
“My job is like being a cop,” he said. “One shot can end your whole career.”
E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo
Source: mlive.com
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