Kostya wouldn't have been able to handle Mosley's physicality. Despite Kosyta brilliant timing and fundamentals, particularly the jab and right hand he wasn't too hard to hit really. The Mosley between 0 fight and Forrest 1 was a killer body puncher and he brake Kostya down for a stoppage.
Nah. Theres no way a lightweight Mosley is bullying a fighter as big as Margarito in the fashion he did at 147.
Yeah that and undetecable steriods, and I don't want to hear he only roided for the 2nd Oscar fight, if anyone followed his career at lightweight it was clear that his power, speed and the body of a middleweight was completely natural.
Really tough fight to call IMO. Mosley at the time may have been a bit too much. He was in his prime at that point. Tszyu was a tougher fight than anyone Mosley fought at LW though. Tough call.
Tszyu was all wrong for Mosley even though he was great at lightweight, he displayed the same flaws that resulted in loses in most of his big fights, and also a string a shitty performances at 147 against c class opposition, he was just facing horrible competition at lower weights for them flaws to be exposed, if you have a jab/boxing skills and is able not be drawn into a brawl you'll beat Shane easily, things which Tsyzu was great at
I thought SSM in his earliest welterweight days was the peak version. He looked faster and stronger than he did when he was killing himself to hit 135.
He looked pretty poor against Rivera but Rivera made Whitaker look poor a few years prior. That welterweight period where he stuck with what worked well for himself rather than falling in love with his power and right hand, he was a whirlwind. I always thought with the right plan that he could have beaten Forrest but I'm always going to be in the minority there.
He definitely had the speed power and swarming style to beat and trouble Forrest but the steroid cheat didn't have the heart of a Mayorga
I thought his real problem was that he was too upright and straight on, couple with that range finder jab that he held out too much he ended up being a magnet for straight right hands and that deadly uppercut that ended the fight for him in the second round. He didn't want to fight after that and I don't think Jack offered him anything in the aftermath of that knockdown.
Yup Yup, you are also forgetting about the headbutt, and how it probably stunned Mosley, and lead to the knock down I'm still scratching my head on how Forrest dominates prime Mosley twice, then loses to Mayorga twice, just goes to show how over rated both Mosley and Forrest were
Forrest was having problems with the shoulder at the time which more or less took the stiffness off of his jab, probably Vernon's most important punch along with the straight right. Add to that Vernon's poor lateral movement and his tendency to back up in a straight line, once Mayorga charged him with his wind-milling power punches it was game over. It doesn't help either when you pelt a fighter with free punches and he just shrugs them off and calls you a *****. Must sap some confidence. In the second fight he made it much closer and probably should have walked away with the win. Compare it with how Spinks fought Mayorga and you see that Vernon wasn't this second coming off Thomas Hearns that some try to make him out to be.