Thoughts on Mayweather V. Mosely: the Aftermath

I taped the Mosely v. Mayweather fight but chances are I won't watch it again. However, I don't regret spending the $65 bucks to watch Mayweather Jr. survive a near KO in the 2nd round and then deliver a masterful, courageous performance which quashed Shane Mosely's dream of being the undisputed people's welterweight champion in the world of boxing. Mayweather's victory simply tells of the danger of following your heart. I liked both fighters, but a sense of justice leaned toward Shane Mosely.

Mosely's had a great career, but on May 1, he didn't have anything but a puncher's chance against the inspired counter-punching and speed of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Not that night, and not likely ever again. I hope Shane Mosely goes into a graceful retirement--he was a better fighter than the world gave him credit for. It wasn't his time, and he didn't play the predictable game of taking the easy fights to build up his record.

Shane Mosely looked worn out as he went into the middle rounds of his bout with Mayweather. But he survived into the 12^th round, and it reminded me of the Martin Scorcese Robert - Robert DeNiro film, the part where Jake LaMotta says "I don' go down fer nobody!" Take a look at the Shane Mosely record and you see that his losses were all by decision. But it takes a toll.

I was never one of those people who disparaged Floyd Mayweather, Jr. for any of a variety of reasons including trash talk, excessive braggadocio, having a good boxing defense, being born into a dysfunctional family. Mayweather freely admits to the latter, and I can relate to that, though I am grateful that my uncle never shot my father, ending his boxing career.

Uncle Roger (not the uncle previously mentioned) was a solid boxer and is now a great trainer, in spite of pending criminal charges. Boxing is a truth test, and the only truth to be tested in the Mayweather v. Mosely fight was whether Mayweather could pass the chin test. Shane Mosely rocked him with powerful rights in the second round and Mayweather almost crashed to the deck. It's at such times, if he can, that a fighter decides if he's going to soldier on or look for a comfortable place to collapse, and Mayweather soldiered on.

Aside from his boxing skills, there are other reasons to give Mayweather his props. For one thing, Floyd Jr. was willing to forgo the title belt in order to not pay the 3 % to one of the sanctioning bodies which have, over the years, abused and exploited boxers. While we've seen football, baseball, boxing, track, and other sports figures undermining the achievements of those who did things the hard way, without performance enhancing "juice," Mayweather has stuck to the physical regimen which has made him the gifted boxer he is. Mayweather rightly insists on Olympic style drug testing for his opponents. As he told Larry Merchant on Saturday night, all he wants is a "level playing field."

Boxing is not a "playing field" exactly, and Mayweather told Merchant he wasn't accusing anyone of anything, but there would be no match with Pacquiao unless he submitted to steroid testing, as Mosely did before this fight. Pacquiao cancelled his scheduled fight with Mayweather, Jr., having made some incredibly lame excuses for not testing according to the highest standards. High standards are good for all sports, and particularly important for boxing, where such things as plaster in boxing gloves can end careers, if not lives.