I firmly believe that Sugar Shane Mosley is one of the most underrated fighters of our era. He was an absolutely devastating IBF lightweight champion, and i honestly think that in his prime at 135lbs only a handful of lightweights in history could've beat him. P4P he was 2nd only to Roy Jones for a lot of the late 90's and early 00's, and had the world at his feet. He was the total package, power, handspeed, defense, everything. If it weren't for the fact that he happened to share an era with Roy Jones, who at the time seemed godlike, he'd have been regarded as the best fighter in the world. Now, he lost badly to Vernon Forrest twice, and then there came the steroid accusations, which he seems to have tacitly admitted to, and his stock never recovered. He's never been too highly featured on any P4P list, and he has always been generally considered below the likes of Floyd Mayweather or Oscar De La Hoya in terms of legacy. I dont think he should be considered a lesser fight because he's suffered those losses, the Vernon Forrest defeats were pretty bad but he really held his own against Winky Wright, and I think he beat Miguel Cotto and should've got the decision. He's got a lot of losses, and people hold that against him, but I still rate him better all-time than Mayweather coz he has such a high standard of opposition. Fighting guys like De La Hoya, Wright, Margarito, Cotto, Vargas, Forrest, Collazo consistently for 10 years and you're bound to wind up with a few defeats. Mayweather doesn't have anything like that kind of quality of opposition, and very few boxers who are still at the top of their game do, apart from Bernard Hopkins. Being undefeated doesn't not make you're legacy any better, just coz Joe Calzaghe is undefeated doesn't mean he achieved what Shane Mosley did, yet for some ****in reason on all the P4P lists for the last few years Calzaghe's been way above Mosley! It's bull****!
I agree and with Saturdays destruction of Margi he has added yet another champ to the list on his resume.
In the lean years Mosley has been counted out and disregarded most of all because he isn't the most nuthugged fighter. He has a fair number of loyal folllowers and an even larger number of people who respect him, but he's never gotten much support in these "internet fan wars." It's good to see people paying tribute to him, but it only seems to come on the heels of big wins.
Mosely got his due when in his prime, he was consensus no1, he only lost that back to RJJ after the Forrest double header which is fair. Ps. I like Mosely better than Cotto & rooted & predicted for him vs Cotto but Cotto won that fight.
I don't like to use the word "special" very often but what Mosley did the other night was that. He has proven to be a fighter for the ages and I just hope he sticks around a few more years cuz I'm gonna miss seeing him fight when he retires. I have always loved watching him fight and even in defeat, he never disappoints. I'm still over the moon about his beatdown of Margarito and that's exactly what it was, a total beatdown.
