Before Saturday, I thought Pac couldn't beat Mosley. Now I'm not so sure...

After the first 5 rounds, Manny Pacquiao began to dominate but it wasn't a completely one sided affair, evidenced by Manny looking busted up himself, with a bandage around his head. Styles make fights, and Mosley will land more often than Cotto as a result of his superior handspeed. Likewise, Mosley has never ever shown an ounce of quit, and has never ever been in the kind of trouble Cotto has been in (Torres, Margarito, and now Pacquiao). I think Shane takes Pacquiao's best shots, and I also think Pacquiao takes Mosleys pretty well too, but I don't envision Mosley getting weaker.

It's a valid argument, especially when you consider Cotto dealt with Mosley fairly well. Cotto had to box to pull off the victory however. So to answer your question, you can't rule it out...no...but I still favor Shane for the reasons I just said. It's unbelievable, I remember saying 6 months ago that Miguel Cotto would utterly dominate and destroy Manny. This wonderful sport never fails to surprise.

 

Mosley has a much much better punch resistance than Cotto so I wouldn't expect Manny to be able to manhandle him like that. However he may be able to outscore him down the stretch if Mosley's age catches up to him

 

The most informative breakdown of a fight I've ever read. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

 

Mosley vs Pac would be a war,But I see Mosley winning a very competitve UD

 

I also changed my mind. At this age I would heavily favor Pac though I think it would be a great fight. I'd take Pac by a wide UD. Too many angles, too much speed. Mosley's one hope would be to land a great left hook on Pac, which Cotto did several times.

 

Mosely isnt a technical fighter Cotto is. He doesnt have the jab the Cotto has. I wont even concede that his hands at this point is faster than Cottos. The more I think of it, this is looking to be one sided of a fight..as a silver lining for Shane, I think his chin will hold up. But this is the fight that will make Mosley look old.

 

roach said "we destroyed oscar and so is mosley"..cotto beat mosley so why not pac

 

People are easily deceived. The only recent fight of Mosley wherein he is impressive is his ko win against Margo. He struggled against a shot Mayorga and Vargas (forget about his ko win rematch with a very2x shot Vargas). I wonder if he is still willing to go down to 143.

 

Don't recall Mosley having noticeably superior handspeed in his fight with Cotto.

 

Look. There's no reason to favor Mosley on paper at this moment, but boxing comes down to styles and pre-fight odds can easily change. Cotto dealt with Mosley's speed and power well using his own strength and skills, but Pac was a completely different fight. I'm saying this because the Cotto performances are not good to compare Shane and Pac. Look at the Margarito fight: for 6 rounds Cotto and Mosley almost looked the same: snapping Margarito's head back like a speedball. But the difference after R6 was huge: Cotto got discouraged as he couldn't hurt Margarito who refused to give up and applied more and more pressure chopping the weakening Puerto Rican down. When Cotto doesn't break you down and you still come back at him with crisp shots, he's in trouble, Freddy based his entire game plan on this fact. Mosley not only didn't break down or got tired vs. Margarito, but he actually could hurt, put down and stop the Mexican, he's THAT much stronger than Cotto with better defense, better conditioning and better tactical skills (ever since he teamed up with Nazim Richardson).

Roach came up with a great plan Pac utilized 100%: hit Cotto as hard as you can, make him respect your power, show him you can take his punch and take him apart after taking his heart. Mosley can't be break down, he won't tire, won't get cut, won't be discouraged, won't get knocked down or rocked, he can fight at the same intensity in the 12th pretty much like Pacquiao.

There's a reason other than Cotto being with Top Rank that Arum/Roach choose Cotto at 145 over Mosley at 143(!), and that you can break Cotto down but you gotta go 12 hard rounds on the same level as Cotto-Pac R1 with Mosley, who's much more complete and less vulnerable at this point. I'm actually saying this for months now not just after Saturday.

Pac COULD outbox Mosley using speed and movement, but with Mosley still doing his best in R12 unlike Cotto would make it MUCH more difficult. Bob Arum will never EVER let Mosley touch his precious stones again, he learnt hard from the Margarito fight (same with Hopkins-Pavlik, and he got ahead of time killing Pavlik-Abraham). And to be frank, I still don't believe Pac-Mosley is a fair fight for the Filipino icon. It's like asking Mosley to fight Abraham.

 

Even if Pac were to get a decision against The Great Sugar Shane, I'm almost positive Pac would pay a huge price. Cotto busted Pac up pretty bad. If he fought Shane, win or lose I think Pac would be physically ruined and it would be in his best interests to retire immediately thereafter.

 

Dont let them fool you they picked cotto because he slow
pac will not land that many times on Mosley.
Trust me I Like Pac but I wouldnt want to see mosley Batter him Around
Floyd would be the most Competetive Fight.