Any Port In A Storm: A Quick Glance Back And A Look Ahead

There’s not much to write that hasn’t already been penned with regards to the thirty-six minutes Manny Pacquiao spent in the ring with an unworthy Shane Mosley last Saturday night.

To paraphrase ex-NFL head coach Denny Green, ‘Manny is who we thought he was. And Shane is who we thought he was.’ It’s as simple as that, no need to over analyze it.

Predictably, Pacquiao looked as sharp as he looked his last time out, and the time before that, and the time before that…etc.

Also predictable was Mosley’s performance. He looked as sharp — or dull — as his last time out, and the time before that, but unfortunately, not the time before that — his last victory.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of the fight, other than the fact that hard-working people had to shell out $60 bucks to watch it, was that for the last half hour of “action”, Mosley hardly took any risks.

As Bart Barry wrote on Monday, “The opening bell rang, and Shane Mosley played himself, too….His career has been a model of what risk-taking makes athletes immortals….And yet, if Saturday was the first time you watched boxing or Shane Mosley, on Sunday morning you woke up hating them both.”

In many ways Mosley was like an old Skipper, whose beloved vessel was on the verge of succumbing to the powers of the sea. His call of distress was never answered — well, because his fists never sent out the SOS. By the fifth round, it was clear the SS Mosley was taking on too much water, and the veteran Captain had already decided he would go down with his ship, he was spent.

While the parallels aren’t perfect, Mosley’s performance reminded me a lot of Arthur Abraham’s dismal display against Carl Froch last year.

While Abraham is certainly no Shane Mosley, he is — or was — a risk taker. He who proved his heart in his first fight with Colombian banger, Edison Miranda, when Abraham fought eight rounds with a broken jaw and blood-filled mouth. When he takes risks, there aren’t many more exciting athletes in the sport. But for what whatever reason, in his last fight, he didn’t.

Abraham doesn’t have much of a jab, and when he uses it, it’s largely ineffective, so he has to take risks to land his infamous wide power punches.

At middleweight, Abraham relied on a strategy that saw his opponents wear themselves out punching his defensive shell for the first half of the fight only to have Abraham flip the script in the second half and finish the fight strong, often times flooring his opponents in the process.

At 168, however, King Arthur is almost always the smaller fighter, with a reach disadvantage. He hasn’t figured out how to get inside his opponent’s reach to land his power punches.

Against Andre Ward, whose Super Six fight’s have almost exclusively featured inside fighting, Abraham might not have to figure out how to get inside, Ward might bring that fight to Abraham.

My guess is he won’t, though. The blueprint on how to beat Abraham couldn’t be clearer. Jab and move. Don’t stop throwing punches because Abraham can’t counter. As long as you are punching, Abraham won’t let his hands go.

So if Ward adopts the Dirrell-Froch blueprint, the only way Abraham will win is if he takes risks. He risked his career and livelihood when he fought eight rounds with a disgusting, dangling jaw against Miranda. He’s done it before, he can do it again.

So similar to the SS Mosley, Captain Abraham’s ship is taking on water. Having lost his previous two Super Six bouts, this is King Arthur’s last chance to assert his status as an “A-side” fighter. He won’t be able to give away the first three rounds like usual; he’s not knocking opponents out with regularity at 168.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If the Armenian-born, German immigrant’s career is to stay afloat, he needs to advance in the Super Six. Expect fireworks from Abraham Saturday, flares for that matter, as his wailing punches send out the SOS.

If King Arthur acts like Mosley did on Saturday night and refuses to take any risks, expect his ship and career to head straight to Davy Jones’ locker and the gutter, respectively.

Kyle Kinder can be found on Twitter.com/KyleKinder or [email protected]

Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank