An old topic, but one which never seems to get resolved or become tedious. Felix Trinidad (the version who fought Pea in 1999) vs Shane Mosley (the version who fought Oscar in 2000) How would this fight go, and who would emerge victorious? :bbb
The way Tito fought tall and behind a pretty good jab, I think he would have always given Mosley trouble. Tito's hook would connect and probably put Mosley out. I think Tito would have given Pea fits in his prime as well.
Both are not the kryptonite of the other, so what we likely see is a great fight. One thing you should never understate is how much of a problem it can be when you come to fight and trade with Trinidad at these weights, without employing a lot of lateral movement.
I like both but I have Tito in this one. Mosley doesn't box and going to war with Trinidad isn't smart no matter how much power & speed Shane has. Take account to the fact that Trinidad threw pretty smart punches and you have him giving Mosley fits. I think this would be one of the greatest fights of all time but a certain man named Winky prevented it.
I may as well take a stand since it's my thread: I see Tito winning after an epic. I actually think he could stop Shane late, Tito was a much more deadly finisher than Forrest and I see him getting Shane into a similar situation at least once over the course of the fight. Shane's desire to mix it up would eventually be his downfall. I see him dropping Tito early, edging most of the early rounds, Tito fighting his way back into it, starting to control the fight, and then either a late TKO or a close but clear points win.
As much as I want to pick Mosley, I see Tito being too big, too strong. Shane would do enough to hang in there, but he'd probably get too frustrated and freeze up as we've seen him do in past losses.
This always kills me about Shane. He had raw gifts on a par with some of the best ever, but he fell in love with his power so completely that we always have to assume in H2H matchups that he'd have taken the approach of a high level brawler. He might not have had the size others did, but he certainly had the stamina, speed, and reflexes to box Tito very effectively. And yet when you look at his body of work, you have to think he'd have tried to "power box" him, which would have played right into Tito's hands. Trinidad by SD at 147, very possibly by stoppage at 154.
Even the great Eddie Futch thought so, but he never developed his game properly, or showed the fundamentals of a great boxer. His jab was pretty **** poor and he was really affected by the taller guys who boxed him and used their height advantages, something Tito would definitely do, because he always fought tall behind a good jab to setup his hook.
It's feels like kind of a bold statement given how his career has panned out, but he could do things at 135 that reminded me of Roy at 160. Shane couldn't carry off the extra weight as well though as he moved up, and then the departure from fundamentals could really make him look bad. Imagine if he had just sat tight after the De La Hoya fight and gone down to 140. He could have defended against a pretty decent crop of early 2000s junior welters, beaten Hatton, and waited on Manny and Floyd to come up to fight him. But this is material for another thread. :roll:
