Sugar Shane Mosley sour: Forget Pacquiao, Mayweather, I'm Numero Uno

Sugar Shane Mosley sour: Forget Pacquiao, Mayweather, I'm Numero Uno


January 5, 4:16 PM

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

Michael Marley




I had a strange malady known as laboratory fever.

I needed relief and I don’t mean a strenuous stay up all night studying urine exam.

So I put aside my syringes, my sample storage units and my blood-filled beakers.

I busted out of the drug testing center and I talked about boxing, the sport I covered before random testing for EPO, HGH and who knows what else, became the focal point of news coverage.

I spoke to future Hall Of Famer Sugar Shane Mosley Tuesday afternoon.
His Cali driver’s license shows him to be hitting 39 on his next birthday.
But, in speaking from his Big Bear training lair (“it’s so nice and peaceful up here, I could live here even though I’m living in Las Vegas”), Mosley told me his body and his mind tell him he’s actually “24 or 25.”

Mosley, who said he plans to fight for four or five years or until he’s about 45, has a January 30 Mandalay Bay date against WBC welterweight champ young and unbeaten Andre Berto.

We spoke on Berto but we spoke more on the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao brouhaha.

The Pomona Kid said fight fans will be sorely disappointed if Floyd and Manny do fight in March or May, maybe more so than if they don’t bridge their random blood testing gap and make a dazzling deal.

“I hope it doesn’t push through,” Mosley said, “obviously I have my own selfish reasons. But I also hope it doesn’t because it’s not the best fight out there. I am Number One, I am the best welterweight in the world.
“Really, the best fight out there that can be made is me and Pacquiao, two real warriors who will go at it in a fight that won’t leave the fans dissatisfied or disappointed. That’s the best fight.”

Mosley said that if, somehow, he and the Pinoy Idol could sit down together, this mammoth fight could be easily made.

“If Manny and I sat together at the table, just us, we could get this deal done. It would fair (money) for him and fair for me. It’s all the other people who get involved, who worry about what they’re getting. Manny would get the money he’s supposed to getting.

"Manny and I wouldn’t be like Mayweather who who wants to get all the money for himself.”

Frankly, Mosley admits, his name not being in the immediate mix with all the Floyd-Manny hullabaloo, is agonizing.

“Here I am, one of the real legendary fighters, and my name is still not mentioned in this,” Mosley said. “Here I am ready to stand up and fight either one of them.

“I’ve been saying it since Day One that I’m the best and all I get is aggravation. It’s just business, I know that but I also know I am going to be the Last Man Stading.”

Part 2 to follow: His Sugarship talks about who wins Floyd-Manny, about the rising star Berto and their Vegas bout on HBO, and his budding amateur prospect, 19 year old Shane Jr., who is trained by Papa Jack Mosley, Shane’s father and his first and longest lasting boxing teacher.