Margarito: And Shane Mosley sets the world on fire

I love Mosley. This made my day even more then him sparking Ricardo out with one punch with one second to go in the 12th.

 

That was a very impressive performance by Mosley.

I stated that Mosley would have to fight a very smart fight to pull the win and he did. Taking away Margo's room to punch, landing bodyshots, and using his speed to land very effective counters wore down Margo and reduced his output drastically.

It was like what Quintana did to Williams, without the brutal knock out of course.

What happens to the Welterweight division now that the top 3 fighters have made a circle with themselves? I guess there is going to be rematches all this year at Welter.

 

Its a real shame on the hand wraps though. I hope we can see a full conclusive report on this from the Athletic Comission soon since HBO likes to dramatize everything.

 

Mosley deserves massive amounts of credit in a P4P sense. He's destroyed several very good fighters much bigger them himself.

Vargas, 2x, who was one of the biggest 154 pounders ever.

Margarito, who's usually a middleweight come fight night (Literally) and who has easily fought at 154.

Mayorga, who he sparked with one shot in the 12th round. Mayorga was 170 pounds come fight night.

Collazo, who's a WW plus.

Mosley started out as a lightweight. Obviously the quality of his win over a WW isn't on par with Duran/Leonard, but the fighters he's beaten in the highest weights are huge.

The only fighters he's lost too have been far bigger then himself.

Wright who fought his entire career at 154, and Vernon Forrest who was a 154lber in a WW, 6 feet tall and everything. Cotto's a decent sized WW too.

Go Shane! :happy:happy

 

It was an excellent fight. I was nervous before hand because I didn't know how aged Shane would look. I figured that if he was as good as he was against Cotto he would win. Really brilliant performance, Mosley has never looked technically better. He executed a solid game plan to perfection, utilized his jab, footwork, effective clinching, in-fighting and body punching fantastically. He beat the odds and became the Number one fighter in his division at the age of 37 years old, beating the former champ in dominant fashion and becoming the only man to stop the iron chinned Margarito. All of this while going through a divorce, too. A truly great accomplishment. This is probably my favorite boxing moment, right here.

 

I'm damn glad I didn't bet on this one! In a way, this one was very much in the vein of Duran-Barkley.

 

Ashamed to say I rather fancied Shane to outbox the one dimensional Margarito ,bit didn't post it as I did not want to look a prat if Mosley got creamed.Fortune favours the brave.

 

I put a bet on Mosley to win on points, but didn't expect a TKO in a million years.

 

Margarito beats Cotto, Cotto beats Mosley, and Mosely clobbers Margarito. This is great for boxing and just proves the old formula that "Styles Make the Fights!"

 

Mosley really had his Davey Moore/Barkley moment last night, sensational, and he maybe hard to beat, only Williams, Cotto, Mayweather really have a shot and 2 of those have left the division and Cotto may not be the same fighter and is having problems getting back down to 147

 

Pacquaio has no chance against Mosley in that kind of form. Pacquaio would need to turn into something he simply isn't, and thats a defensive genius combined with scary power at the weight. I can't see Pacquaio standing up to Mosley's power. Infact, Mosley would probably put Pacquaio in a bodybag the more I think about it. I wonder if that fight comes off. My guess is that Roach and Arum will stay well clear of Mosley.

 

A Few Observations:

1. Styles make fights is perhaps the most confirmed boxing proverb in history. Shane loses to Cotto, Antonio demolishes Cotto, Shane demolishes Cotto. Duran loses to Hearns, Barkley beats Hearns, Duran beats Barkley. Hopkins loses to Taylor, Pavlik beats Taylor, Hopkins beats Pavlik. Giardello loses to Benton, Carter beats Benton, Giardello beats Carter. Etc, ad nauseum.

2. Speed, Dynamism, Strategy. Speed isn't enough to beat the rough and relentless style that Margarito brings (especially if he's cheating with cement fists), but speed and dynamism do. Shane varied his attack all over the place, and timed that Margarito jab countless times -coming over with a right. But it was strategy that was the key. Shane spent alot of time fighting Margarito just outside the perimeter -in other words, just out of reach of Margarito. Margarito's aggression was turned against him because of this. Antonio keeps coming but he would reach and Shane would then either beat him to the punch or slip and counter the hell out of him. Antonio was often out of position and Shane was slamming home shots -slamming them with leverage. Key shots? The overhand right, right counter over the jab, and body shots. The key shots were less a factor than the variability of the shots. Speed and variability. Antonio couldn't deal with these. Add to it the power. Shane can punch. Any novice should be forced to watch this fight and see how the jab sets everything up. Three dimensional fighters usually beat one dimensional fighters.

3. Hands of Plaster. I don't want to jump to conclusions but I'm going to anyway. Had Nazeem Richardson not caught him, last night wouldn't have been the first time that Antonio Margarito used cement fists. I don't know about you but Cotto's face and Lujan's ear makes sense now. If it's true, Antonio should be banned from boxing for life and forced to pay millions in fines. Millions! And it should go to a Boxers' Pension Fund.

4. Hands of Stone. Shane's victory last night was magnificent but it ain't quite what Duran did 20 years ago. Both are natural lightweights... but Shane is 5'9 and beat a 5'11, 147 pounder who was 30. Duran was 5'7 and beat a 6'1, 160 pounder who was 28.

5. Boxing is alive and well.

 

Great post. Interestingly it's very old hands like Hopkins and Mosely providing much of the excitement too.

 

Age and guile defeat youth and speed. Age and leftover speed and strategy defeat youth and one-dimensional styles ...who cheat.