He may be in the Twilight of his career and zeroing in on his 40th birthday but “Sugar” Shane Mosley is still a tough night’s work for anyone. For a few years now Mosley has wanted to fight Manny Pacquiao, he has got what he wished for and takes on the Filipino Icon on 7 May in Las Vegas at The MGM Grand in front of millions on Showtime PPV. It’s a fight Mosley believes he can win; he has blind faith in his ability and left his position as a partner of Golden Boy Promotions to take up this challenge. Mosley 46-6-1(39) has fought many of the best fighters in the world from 135-154 winning 5 world titles in 3 weight classes. He’s been one of the standard bearers of the past 2 decades fighting 15 past or present world champions including Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto & Floyd Mayweather.
Hello Shane, welcome to 15rounds.com
Anson Wainwright – You are fighting Manny Pacquiao on 7 May in Las Vegas. What are your thoughts on the fight & how good do you think Pacquiao is?
Shane Mosley – I think he’s a great fighter, he does a lot of good things. It’s going to be a terrific fight.
Anson Wainwright – Of course it has been much discussed you have left Golden Boy & will be fighting Pacquiao who’s a Top Rank fighter. How are things?
Shane Mosley – No, it’s moving pretty smoothly along with Top Rank. Everything I have asked for has been ok and I’m just happy.
Anson Wainwright – People will say that you haven’t won in your last two fights and not looked the best in your fights with Mayweather & Mora. What do you say to them?
Shane Mosley – I believe I will do a lot better than I did in those two fights. My mentality right now is I’m ready to go and fight and give my 100% all.
Anson Wainwright – It would of been easy for you to stay with Golden Boy where your were a partner and claim your reported 5% but you’re obviously still highly motivated despite being months shy of 40. What are your thoughts on this?
Shane Mosley – I’m very motivated and happy to be able to box at this age. I’ve been boxing for about 31 years and I’ve fought at this level a lot. I’m willing to go in there and prove that I’m still one of the best fighters and fighting Pacquaio will prove that and be a great accomplishment for me.
Anson Wainwright – The Mayweather fight wasn’t your finest hour in the ring. Could you talk us through the fight from your point of view along with the second round?
Shane Mosley – A lot of times I don’t look back on them or think about them (The fights). But it was a pretty good punch, I just couldn’t at that point do what I needed to do to win the fight to KO him but I’ve been working very hard to make sure I close the deal next time I get a person hurt.
Anson Wainwright – If I can take you back to the Margarito fight, going into that fight you had a lot going on outside the ring. The on fight night there was the gauzing that went into Margarito glove. How much of what was going on were you aware of or were you just focused on the fight?
Shane Mosley – Yeah I was just focusing on my game plan, because if he had concrete gloves on I didn’t care I was going to win that fight. I trained hard, I was determined to prove the critic’s and everybody wrong that I was to old and that his rhythm was to much for me and he was going to knock me out and retire me. And I did I stopped him and proved the critics wrong. I’m going to do that in this fight as well.
Anson Wainwright – Do you see this fight with Pacquiao similar to the Margarito one where you were also the underdog and have something to prove?
Shane Mosley – Yeah, I aim to do it again. I aim to shock the world and beat Pacquiao. Once again prove the critics wrong.
Anson Wainwright – How much longer do you think you can keep performing at the top of Boxing? Do you have any plans for what you’d like to do when your finish Boxing?
Shane Mosley – Well yeah I have my promotional company “Sugar” Shane Mosley Promotions and I’m looking to start signing fighters and get more active in the promotional field and help these young fighters become world champions and superstars. That would be another great challenge for me. After this fight I have another 3 or 4 fights in me, then I can start my promotional company.
Anson Wainwright – You’re son Shane Junior is also an up and coming boxer. How are things developing with him and his career?
Shane Mosley – He’s doing pretty good; he’s up here training with me now. Basically I’m just showing him the ropes right now what you have to go through to be world champion and that’s important mentally so he can see what it takes, realise if it’s for him or not. He’s doing good, his punches are pretty hard, and he’s getting faster and better as the days go by. I think he’s going to be alright.
Anson Wainwright – A chip off the old block hey?
Shane Mosley – Ha-ha I think so, he has the determination and he’s getting better and better as we go along.
Anson Wainwright – Has he had any amateur fights yet?
Shane Mosley – He’s had a few, I think I’ll start fighting him more so he can have the experience of fighting in the ring more. He’s been in the ring sparring a lot but not really fighting. There’s a difference between fighting and sparring, that’s what I aim to do a little more.
Anson Wainwright – You’ve fought many of the best fighters of the last 15 years. Who is the best fighter you’ve ever fought?
Shane Mosley – Styles make fights but the most difficult I’d say Winky (Wright) earlier in my career but later on Floyd (Mayweather) was a pretty good defensive fighter as well.
Anson Wainwright – To date what do you consider to be your proudest moment in Boxing?
Shane Mosley – I think the proudest moment was winning my first world title at Lightweight against Philip Holiday.
Anson Wainwright – What are your thoughts on the current Welterweight division?
Shane Mosley – I think there’s a lot of great challenge’s with Khan coming up. Me & Manny Pacquiao fighting, there’s others. The division’s good an exciting. There’s a lot of great talent out there.
Anson Wainwright – You’re known as one of boxing good guys but we don’t know to much about you away from Boxing. Can you tell us about other activities you are involved with? Also what are your hobbies & Interests?
Shane Mosley – Well I mean, I’m a family man, I have 4 kids. I like to play Basketball, snowboard, bowl. I’m a very active person, I’m an outdoors person. I like to get out and do things. Boxings in my heart so I don’t stray too far from that. I’m involved in a boxing programme and sponsor the kids in the community.
Anson Wainwright – Last year you teamed up with PETA to help stop dog fighting & the slaughter on Seal trade in Canada, it’s obviously something that’s close to your heart?
Shane Mosley – Well yeah, I have a few pets. Dog’s don’t have a choice to fight or not but we do. So I kind of got behind it and just spoke out about it.
Anson Wainwright – Finally do you have a message for your fans ahead of the Pacquiao fight?
Shane Mosley – This is going to be the fight you don’t want to miss. I’m definitely giving everything I’ve got. You wont be disappointed so come and check it out or watch it on PPV Showtime. It’s definitely going to be a knock out. Also follow me on Sugar Shane on Twitter.
Thank you for your time Shane, it’s been a pleasure.
Anson Wainwright
15rounds.com
Midweek Thoughts – Yuriorkis Gamboa looked sensational blowing away Jorge Solis on Saturday. Solis was no mug he was a very solid guy, he just couldn’t deal with the Cuban’s power and speed. Hopefully Juanma Lopez looks just as impressive in a few weeks and Top Rank can get these two together in what would surely be a barnburner…Mikey Garcia kept his unbeaten record but took Matt Remillard’s when Remillard’s corner mercifully stopped the fight at the end of the tenth. Garcia is only 23 but has the look of a man far more experience. He systematically broke down Remillard. Outside of Gamboa & Lopez, Garcia is right in the fight with anyone at Featherweight right now…I haven’t had chance to see it yet but the Kennedy-Diaz fight appeared to be a cracker…Disappointing to see Erislandy Lara on Friday night not really perform, all credit to Carlos Molina…On Saturday Leo Santa Cruz scored a very impressive KO over Stephane Jamoye, it’s the biggest win of Santa Cruz career & proved he can go place, I’m looking for him to have a big year now…I’ve been told Ricardo Mayorga dislocated his thumb in the Cotto fight. He’s also on the short list to fight Saul Alvarez in September provided “Canelo” wins in a June fight possibly against Ryan Rhodes. I’ll say this much if Mayorga does decide to give it another go and not retire a fight with “Canelo” would be a fun promotion. Alvarez wont ever of seen anything or anyone quite like Mayorga.
On Friday night it was the final of the WABA (Welsh Amateur Boxing Association)
Female
54kg Lynsey Holdaway beat Catherine Gillen after the referee stopped the action with Holdaway 20-1 up in the fourth and final round.
60kg Rebecca Price beat defending champion Ashley Brace 14-10.
Male
49kg Ben Baker beat Annes Rashid in the second round Rashid took two standing 8 counts before being stopped
52kg Two time European Bronze medallist Andrew Selby returned from his duty on the British squad to show the gulf in class as he stopped Andrew Perry in the second after Perry had two standing 8 counts in the first.
56kg Daniel Chapman run out 14-1 winner against last years Flyweight champion Jay Harris
60kg Zack Davies outpointed Craig Woodruff 16-4
64kg Chris Jenkins the Welsh representative in last years Commonwealth games beat Ashley Appleby when the referee stopped the action in the second. Jenkins was 9-0 up at the time of the stoppage
69kg Fred Evans who also went to the Commonwealth games won 18-8 against Jamie Evans.
75kg Liam Williams outpointed warren Sinden 19-4
81kg Charlie Moseley narrowly outpointed Tom Lloyd 13-9
91kg Lloyd Davies impressively overwhelmed Robert Penn and after 3 standing 8 counts the fight was called off in the second round.
91+kg Dorian Darch beat Andrew Wyn Davies 16-9 stopping Davies winning the title for the 5th consecutive year.
If you would like to hear from any particular fighters please e-mail me on [email protected]
