***Manny Pacquiao 145, Shane Mosley 147 - final countdown to the fight***

The Mosley warrior line is no complete lie but he looked like he gassed early against Floyd and looked sloppy as **** against Mora.

 

Here's a preview of the undercard lads, let me know what you think:

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really looking forward to seeing how pavlik comes back. He seems to be happy again so I hope he puts on a good performance.

 

Especially since they refused to fight him after Shane beat Margo as in Roach's words "You're too good" yet now he couldn't even beat Sergio Mora they are more than happy for another past prime guy for the resume.

 

I didn't go into today's final pre-fight press conference for the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout with any high expectations of getting some serious sound bytes from either man or their team. By this point nearly all of the training and most of the talk has been done and that fact coupled with the modest nature of the two prizefighters hasn't made for a lead up full of suspense or controversy as was the case with Pacquiao's bout with the troubled Antonio Margarito last November.

During his time on the dais, Pacquiao started off with standard fare, thanking everyone from God, Showtime, the MGM Grand, and his fans, among other parties. And if you ask the General Santos City fighter himself, he will be the first to tell you just how elated he was to be dealing with an individual like Mosley who strayed away from any kind of verbal insults leading up to their bout this Saturday night.

"I'm so happy for this fight because there is no trash talk," Pacquiao said to the assembled media inside of the Hollywood Theatre. "The fight will happen without the trash talk and it's a good example to the children who idolize the fighters. In my life it's my experience that the best promotion has been the Shane Mosley fight because everybody is friends."

Pacquiao went on to pay his respect to the 39-year old Mosley, noting that he doesn't look at Shane as an old fighter and expects a grueling battle this weekend. Fully knowing Shane's history of showing up big when playing the role of the underdog, Pacquiao noted just how hard he had prepared for this bout during his training stints in Baguio City in his native Philippines and in Los Angeles at the Wild Card Boxing Club.

"I'm happy you will see that I am training hard for the big fight," Pacquiao continued. "Our first concern is how we can give a good fight to the people and on Saturday we will do our best. We trained hard for this fight, we did a lot of things in the training camp and on Saturday there will be a lot of action in the ring. I'm pretty sure that it's a good fight and that people are going to be happy."

Pacquiao grew up hard and it's well-documented that he often had to sell cigarettes as a child just to scrape up a few bucks. The seriousness of those early days has never left his conscious and he finished up by showing an emotional side to himself in stating his efforts to never give up fighting for his people back home.

"All my life I have had to fight. At a time I had to fight just to eat, my background before when I was young. And now when I fight, Filipinos, they call me a hero. I believe this world needs more heroes. The biggest fight of my life is not boxing. The biggest fight of my life is how to end poverty in my country. That's my biggest fight in my life."

 

This is the same old song and dance for Shane Mosley.

In his eighteenth year as a professional and heading into his twenty-first world title fight, the atmosphere surrounding his bout this weekend with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is something he is all too accustomed to. Maybe that's why, in going up against the man considered the world's best fighter and being looked at as an underdog yet again, that the Pomona, California star shows no signs of intimidation or fear.

In giving his assessment of the 5'6 Pacquiao, Mosley noted that his stature is the last thing he would ever be concerned with as he spoke during today's press conference for his May 7th bout.

"Pacquiao is a short welterweight, but he's not a small welterweight," Mosley told the assembled press inside of the Hollywood Theatre at the MGM Grand. "He's very powerful. This is like a Mike Tyson fight - we're heavyweights out there. I'm looking to go out there, take charge and beat Manny Pacquiao."

A bold proclamation indeed but it's just the kind of fight Mosley has always welcomed.

"We're going to go out there and not take our foot off the gas pedal," he continued.

Shane was in a similar situation in January of 2009 when he went up against Tijuana's Antonio Margarito, who was then fresh off of an 11th round battering of Miguel Cotto himself. It was looked at as Mosley's swan song but he turned into in a celebration, thrashing Margarito with bombs all night on his way towards registering a ninth round stoppage at the Staples Center.

When assessing his chances against Pacquiao he is reminded of that fight as well as his days as a terror at 135 pounds, a time when he put together eight defenses of his IBF lightweight crown.

"I can muster all that energy that I had against Margarito," Mosley said. "This type of fight reminds me of when I was able to do a lot of damage in the lightweight division. It's kind of like going back in time. I think I can do all the things I could do in the ring five years ago."

The fight is a sellout and easily looked at as the biggest event of 2011 so far, but Pacquiao is the reason for that. For as great of a fighter as Mosley has shown himself to be, it is Pacquiao who has seen his star skyrocket after putting an improbable string of performances together against solid opposition after moving up in weight.

 

When looking back at the career of Erik 'El Terrible' Morales there are countless battles and performances from the Tijuana fighter that stand out. Halting Brooklyn's Junior Jones in a bull ring in Tijuana, three memorable tussles with Marco Antonio Barrera, dominant junior lightweight conquests over Carlos Hernandez and Jesus Chavez all instantly come to mind.

But if you had to pick a fight where Morales' back was to the wall and he came through after making a valiant stand, you would look no further than his March 2005 upset over Manny Pacquiao inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Coming off of a bitter loss with fierce rival Barrera in their third fight, this bout was looked at as Morales' last stand given the rising tide that Pacquiao had shown himself to be.

The unassuming General Santos City fighter by way of the Philippines was coming off a destruction over Marco Antonio Barrera in November of 2003 and a follow-up majority draw with Juan Manuel Marquez that left many breathless. Despite failing to officially defeat Marquez, Pacquiao's stock was still high because of the savage nature of the fight, one in which he floored the Mexico City fighter three times in the opening round.

Pacquiao figured to be a little too much to handle for Morales heading into the contest yet what we saw from Erik was an inspirational and gritty performance. For twelve pulsating rounds the two men traded blows at a constant clip but for the most part it was Morales who was a little sharper and more effective with his shots, ultimately winning a close unanimous decision while also showing new wrinkles to his game as he outboxed Pacquiao during key portions of the fight.

Well-respected trainer and cut man Miguel Diaz was in Morales' corner that night and spoke with admiration of his fighter's effort.

"Morales fought a perfect fight that day," Diaz reflected. "I worked his corner and I remember that he did everything. He boxed, boxed, boxed, and he didn't get into the movement of typical Mexican fighter. And he offset all the moves of Pacquiao. Pacquiao was not the same guy that he is right now. He was coming up as a star."

But the glory would be short-lived as Morales would go on to lose his next four fights, including two disheartening stoppages to Pacquiao in return bouts in Las Vegas. I asked Diaz if seeing Morales crumpled on the canvas after absorbing sustained punishment in his second fight with Pacquiao was all he needed to realize that the legend's career had seen his best days past and he agreed.

"Of course," said Diaz. "He said that he wasn't really enjoying what he was doing. You saw the the results in the last fight with [Marcos] Maidana. He enjoyed what he was doing and he produced a tremendous fight."

When mentioning the name Maidana, Diaz is referring to the dramatic battle between the clubbing Argentinean and Morales inside of the Mandalay Bay last month. The 34-year old Morales was looked at as a sacrificial lamb heading into the fight but produced an astonishing effort that same him match Maidana punch for punch in losing a very close decision verdict.

More reflectives on Pacquiao: Al Bernstein remembers the Ledwaba breakthrough / Larry Merchant remembers the day Manny and Marco Antonio Barrera crossed paths / Bert Sugar muses on the possibility of Pacquiao-Marquez III

Shocking to some but Diaz, who used to work with Maidana as well, hinted that he saw it coming all along.

"In a way, yeah, but I was kind of expecting that," he continued. "Before the fight I always said that all those old pros, when they come back, they have a rest for a couple of years, they heal all the things that they have in their body and they get better results."

Another old dog will be looking to give an effort as harrowing as Morales' when former five-time champion Shane Mosley meets the aforementioned Pacquiao this weekend at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Shane is a heavy underdog and at 39-years old Diaz doesn't know if he can keep pace for twelve rounds.

"It's a tough fight for four or five rounds," Diaz stated. "The Mosley everybody knows is pretty good with his boxing ability. He's got a good defense; he's got a good movement. For the first four of five rounds it's going to be a very entertaining fight. People will enjoy it and eventually the speed and the stamina of Pacquiao will prevail. I wouldn't be surprised if he would stop Mosley by the eighth or ninth round."

Diaz has been serving as Pacquiao's cut man dating back to his victory over Oscar De La Hoya in December of 2008 but some had wondered if he would be returning for the Mosley contest. Reason being, Diaz and Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza have been on uneven terms dating back to a disagreement in the corner during Manny's November victory over Antonio Margarito.

Diaz reassured that nothing has changed when I asked if he was again set to work the eight-division champion's corner this weekend.

"Yeah, of course."

 

I don't disagree that sugar shane is past is best but he was coming off 15 months of inactivity for the mayweather fight and already had 1 training camp for the cancelled berto fight and sergio mora can make any fighter look crap with his fighting style, so Im not counting out mosley but maybe it's just false hope because he is one of my favourite fighters

 

Purses for tomorow night (Source ESPN.com)

Manny Pacquiao $20,000,000
Shane Mosley $5,000,000
(Minimum guarentees, Likley to rise depending on PPV sales)

Kelly Pavlik $270,000
Alfonso Lopez $40,000

Wilfredo Vazquez Jnr $165,000
Jorge Arce $125,000

Mike Alvarado $50,000
Ray Narh $22,500

 

Yikes, 20 mil for Pacman, thats a nice lump of money.

Happy to see Jorge getting a decent payday at (what I hope is) the end of his career.

 

$20,000,000 :yikes

 

yeh he will end up with at least another 50% I reckon but how much of it does into his bank account??