Preview: Shane Mosley V Andre Berto

The first mega fight of 2010 will see the living legend Sugar Shane Mosley again try to roll back the clock and deny father time as he faces one of the men that the American boxing world is counting on to be part of their next generation of stars Andre Berto. A fight that will see the talent laden Welterweight division having a unified champion for the first time in several years as Berto puts his WBC title up against that of the WBA's "Super" champion Mosley on January 30^th. However with the expected fight between Manny Pacquiao (the WBO champion) and Floyd Mayweather likely to take place next year the WBC/WBA champion will oddly not be seen as the best fighter in a division so heavily talented it's an embarrassment of riches.

The fight between Mosley and Berto will almost certainly entitle one of them to call themselves the number 2 in the division or at very worst the number 3 until the the Mayweather v Pacquaio fight, and will be the first in the queue to face the winner. So lets look at the two fighters here.

Berto is a 26 year old with 25 professional fights behind him with 19 of them coming by way of stoppage. A fast handed fighter who has for quite a while been tipped as the best young American at the weight and having now won the WBC title he may well have backed up the claim. He looked like he had really good power early on in his career however at world level it's his speed and not the power that has been his key. His last 3 fights have all gone the distance and although they were against solid opponents he didn't really even seem to hurt them as boxing and not brawling helped him win them. Though his fight with Luis Collazo (January 17^th 2009) saw him getting the lucky side of a close fight that many scored to Collazo and that was arguably his biggest test so far as the fighter from Florida fought a tough and solid opponent at Welterweight. However Collazo is a rather difficult and slick southpaw who's often been under-rated.

Only one man has ever truly outclassed Collazo and that was Shane Mosley back in 2007 when Collazo damaged his hand during the fight. Mosley was a 36 year old when he faced Collazo and was making his first fight for a Welterweight title since 2002 when he was twice beaten by Vernon Forrest. Since returning to the 147lb division he'd have 3 fights (only 2 at the weight) including a close loss to the then unbeaten Miguel Angel Cotto a final second KO of Ricardo Mayorga (at Light Middleweight) and then an outstanding and truly shocking KO of the iron chinned Antonio Margarito as he on the WBA title. Mosley seemed to look explosively powerful deadly accurate and worryingly fast for any opponents he may end up facing, however it was the fact he was so impressive that has sadly seen him avoided for the past year having not ought since January 24^th 2009. Whether or not the year or so out of the ring will show when he faces Berto is up for debate however at age 38 he'll have no doubt been effected by his age and what will be the biggest question will be whether or not he can follow in close friend Bernard Hopkins' footsteps.

For the fight it's one where Berto holds the youth advantage but Mosley probably holds the aces in power and hugely in experience of top tier fights. The speed would probably be pretty equal though maybe favouring Mosley slightly and this will likely be the key to the fight, if Mosley is as good as he was last time out he'll almost certainly take this. However if he looks like a 38 year old boxer in the ring Berto could finally end up with the stand out victory he perhaps deserves. If ordered to get off the fence about this Berto v Mosley fight I feel Mosley will take the victory and face the Pacquiao v Mayweather winner...if and when that fight goes through...