Kostya Tszyu vs. Shane Mosley

Tszyu was out everything'd by Vince Phillips. Sometimes fighters lose fights, other times they are BEATEN. Vince Phillips BEAT Tszyu very soundly, so soundly Tszyu never gave him a rematch.

 

Tszyu had an outstanding right hand. He never bothered to move up in weight divisions, where the man can lose or gain power, he was not a combination puncher who landed 15 sloppy punches.. followed by one effective punch to KO a man. The majority of his KOs were via a single set up punch, followed by a right. His right was better than Oscars left hook, his vision and timing was better than Moselys and he was capable of belting the life out of both men. Vince Phillips beat KT during a poor diet episode... he was taking amino acids which KT claims to have sapped his energy, even during training. This may be a poor excuse, although KT is a true person in himself and never makes shitty excuses to cover any bases. You would admire KT if you understood how humble he really is... Ive been lucky to chat with him openly numerous times. Personally, I question Vince Phillips blood stream through the fight and latter stages of his career. Regardless, Phillips KOd him. As with most of the enduring fighters.. I doubt basic dietry suppliments are capable of delivering such energies to these guys. The fight game has too much money involved for any top name to have his blood stream checked accordingly.... and I personally know of numerous fighter who openly admit "If ya cant beat them, join them"..
As for Mosely and KT... I would have backed KT at 140lbs...

 

Mosley by decision.

 

KT did have very good timing, he was very accurate, and he could punch. But we are also talking about a guy who was never knocked out, and who's chin has already been tested by the best punches, arguably slightly better or worse than KT's. KT's whole game plan is reliant on his opponents either getting picked off, or his opponents becoming wary and fighting very defensively so they lose a decision..

Mosely was essentially a brawler with very good speed, durability and aggression. He was never knocked out in his career because of his incredible durability. Vernon Forrest hit him with his absolute BEST shots multiple times, and Mosely recovered, came back for more. I don't care how hard you believe KT hits, its just not possible for him to generate the same sort of power a lanky puncher like Forrest could create. Top it off, Shane kept going at Forrest, it was painful to watch how much punishment Shane was capable of taking, and how stubbourn he was in that he would recover and keep moving foward trying to land.. This stubbourness, and this durability is exactly the thing that would eat KT up.

KT, humble as he may be is a very over-rated fighter on these boards. This is a very bad matchup for him.

1) it assumes he will knock a guy out, who still hasn't ever been knocked out, who has been hit by punches that are likely better than anything he was capable of dishing out..

or

2) It assumes that Shane would wilt and start to run away from KT. Something Shane has never done in his career.

KT's vulnerability is that he himself wasn't very enduring. He relied on either knocking his opponent out or stoppage, or his opponent cowering and running from him. KT couldn't deal with a guy who would be in his face all night and rough him up.

 

How can you accurately assess Tszyu's ability to match up to Mosley's speed/pressure when they never fought? It's really only possible that your statement had to be based off the way you've seen him cope with other speedy fighters, right? I remember the Phillips fight as well as you do, he copped it sweet. But to say that he can't deal with speed/pressure is... WRONG!

For the record, you and I are fundamentally in agreement on this, I'd call it as a decision for Mosley, I won't credit him for the stoppage as his KO percentage dropped DRAMATICALLY after he moved up from lightweight...
But there are some X factors in this fight... We've all seen what happens when does Tszyu manage to find someones chin with that right hand of his. He's also an extremely smart fighter and I'd give him a little more than a mere punchers chance. Add to that the fact that Mosley never fought at 140 and Tszyu never fought anywhere else, it's not really as straight forward as you think.

But, as I see it, Tszyu's flat-footed style would be taylor made for Sugar Shane and I'd expect him to start sitting down on his punches in the middle-later rounds... Mosley to basically out-land Kostya, as much as it pissees me off to say it...

 

Mosley has always had a great chin.I doubt Tszyu would have a chance of knocking him out.

 

Mosley would most likely literally beat the **** out of Tszyu

i'm talking broken nose, busted lip, eyes swolled shut, the whole works.....

he's too tough, too strong, and too fast for Tszyu

 

Very tough call... Tszyu is clearly underrated even by experts, but at LW Mosley looked like an unbeatable beast, clearly faster, more mobile and deadlier than his WW version. Which Shane would've fought at 140? Hard to predict such a thing. I'd say the LW version beats Tszyu on points, maybe late TKO. The WW version, even the one who beat Oscar, maybe loses. But really... who can be sure with his prediction?

Most definitely a fight I always wanted to see.

 

still have no clue why he never fought at 140

 

Correct :good

 

Nice post!

 

My conclusion from Tszyu's two losses is that he sufferes from stamina issues and a stupid bravado/unwillingess to take a strategic back foot in a fight.

I have never seen Tszyu out classed in a ring at any stage, and against Hatton and Phillips I think he showed who was the superior fighter as well before he faded (especially against Phillips - Tszyu was well ahead on the cards). Then he capitulated late.

But both time's he has been taken to the trenches by fighters he has
a) fell in a hole,
b) committed ring suicide by refusing to protect his vulnerability.

a & b here are inextricably linked.

He stood there and traded right hands with Phillips late in the fight when he was tired and well ahead on the cards? WTF is that?? And you can blame Hatton and the ref as much as you like for what for the Wresttling match in Manchester, but the fact is that Tszyu played right into that fight.

I dunno, personally, I think if Tszyu had less ring ego he would be undefeated.

 

Oh come off it. Tszyu was comfortably winning that fight until he fell in a hole late. Even the commentators were shocked when the KO happened.

 

mosley by clear decision.