Arguello Vs Mosley I tend to favour Arguello going into this due to his height and great boxing ability but i feel Mosley could have the style, especially at lightweight with his speed and poweful bursts to cause Alexis problems ala Aaron Pryor. What you guys think??
With each in their championship reign form, this is a really good one. I'd expect Skinny to get the nod if he can make it through. Big if, though.
Arguello was too good for Shane. Alexis is technically superior and would win a comfortable decision. He might even hurt him with his piston like, precise straighter punches. Pryor can't be used in this argument. Arguello was slightly past his best, it was at 140 and Pryor is a different animal all together. He set an insane pace and had incredible stamina. Shane's "bursts" wouldn't be enough and he's always struggled with a jab.
I don't disagree with much of that, but there was very little downtime between Shane's bursts at LW. He's taken longer and longer breaks as the years and pounds have piled up.
Arguello is technically better, but he was technically better than Pryor too, Shane is faster and makes less mistakes than Pryor imo, not to mention bigger/stronger/harder hitting. Mosley late rounds KO
I think in theory Mosley potentially matches up really well with Arguello...think the Mancini fight with a quicker, more explosive and fluid fighter in place of Mancini's awkward aggression and attempts to outspeed Alexis. However despite being durable, Mosley is a proven repeated frontrunner that goes into a shell and abandons the combos when doing badly.I'm not sure if he would have the will to take the punishment he certainly will have to absord AND keep the necessary high workrate.Once those bodyshots start sinking in...
In his 30s hes been a frontrunner, in both DLH fights he was the 1 pushing the fight down the stretch, same against Forrest, he was trying to keep the combos coming against Winky in the second fight but couldn't get through the shell Against Mosley in the fact Arguello's straighter punching and good timing against Mosley's open defense will get through and may control the fight. Mosley's jab and head movement was better at this stage of his career though
Power, i thought he choked in more or less all of those fights other than maybe the Winky rematch where he did better than i expected(not that he was going to beat Wright anyway).and the first Oscar fight obviously. Mosley DLH 2 was like two guys who didn't really want to open up or take any risks.Shane in one or two bombs at a time post-Forrest mode and Oscar with his tepid sticking and moving.Meh. As a younger lightweight, definitely a hungrier fighter, who isn't likely to fold as easily, it's just that this is Arguello we're talking about.
I think he was going for it against Forrest but Forrest was just better and kept taming him, Mosley was actually close to getting stopped twice in the first fight and the ref stopped the action late because a gum shield came out, which may have saved Shane. After Forrest nearly ko'd him, Mosley did definately become gun shy. It seems to be a trend to have ballsy fighters with poor defenses these days who will walk through any amount of punishment 1 or 2 times only to never be the same again once they lose. Scared to punch, not prepared to take that beating again they're never the same, Mosley did get some of his mojo back mind you, but wasn't quite the same against DLH/Winky at 154 Arguello might do some of the same things Forrest did to be fair as there are similarities, but he wasn't as fast, plodded more, defensively not quite as good, is smaller and his jab/right weren't quite as good, liked to mix it up more and imv leaves more openings when he does mix it up. So overall their are more openings for Shane and his defense will probably cope better Against DLH 2/Winky, Mosley was gun shy but Shane has always at heart been a brawler who didn't have a great defense and punched a little wide, which meant he could be tamed at range but 154 certainly wasn't his weight. Maybe Arguello would manage this at 135......
I think the lightweight Mosley is a better boxer than Arguello was at lightweight. However Mosley has a history of trubble with boxers who keep their distance like Arguello did. I think this is going to be a close fight that can go either way.
You would hear Mosley yelp a few times when that right uppercut is buried into his belly. I'm of the opinion he clams up against the power and gradually increasing accuracy of Arguello. He doesnt give up or capitulate but refuses to put it all on the line to win once he is behind..he would rather live to fight another day in the hope he could land an equalizer later on. Arguello gets a decision thats not debatable after some trouble early. But I'm thinking Alexis would need move up in the late 70's before he was getting a bit shopworn for this one to be a lock. He was a tad patchy with his form in 81-83, not because I think he plateaued at the weight but I think he was not prime.
Like someone said before i think Arguello's straight shots down the pipe from his height advantage would cause Shane problems. It's a close fight for me though as if Shane gets to dictate the pace the way Pryor did early, and not let Alexis settle into his rhythm and pace early then i do think Sugar causes problems.
