Should Shane Mosley have capitalized more on his lightweight legacy before stepping up in weight?

I'm not aware of if he was starting to be unable to make weight, but I figure it makes some sense considering he was aging. He definitely could've stayed around and hurt guys down there for a while, but I think that moving up was probably the best thing for his legacy. And yeah, a Judah fight would've still been damn good fun.

 

Don't think there was much for him to be done at Lightweight. This division was pretty weak at the time and would remain so for couple years.
I think Spaddy fought for vacant belt after Shane. Stevie Johnston might've already held a title when Shane moved up? Not sure who else was around - but there were certainly no household names. He could've made another 10 defences and it wouldn't mean as much as that single win over prime Oscar up at Welterweight.
I think moving up to 154 might've been a mistake. He got another win over De La Hoya there on paper, but not many people give him credit for it. He never looked great at that weight anyway, I think that's when He started to lift more weight and.. well, get some other "help" from Victor Conte. It seemed to only make him more stiff and robotic though. Just a step too far for his frame and style.
He could've gotten more valuable wins if He was more patient and waited for big fights at Welterweight - possibly.

 

From what I remember, he always struggled to make 135, right from the time he beat Holiday for the title.

I've always been curious as to how he would've looked @140 - perhaps it would've even been his best weight? But like Mastrangelo said, the 1st DLH fight is his legacy.

 

Makes sense, then.

And yeah, I agree with that. I was saying a similar thing in my post, "He definitely could've stayed around and hurt guys down there for a while, but I think that moving up was probably the best thing for his legacy." Maybe I didn't say it firmly enough, but I figured it was clear that we were all on the same page, lol.

 

For a better legacy as a 135lber for our sake?maybe? But Shane Mosley probably wanted to be paid better. Probably just didn’t make business sense to stay down there.

 

Interestingly he was able to make 135 6 years into his career. He won a lightweight title in 97 and looking at the couple of years he spent there, well it was pretty much a wasteland and then some. Not strong enough to carve out any sort of legacy and that equals the money being poor comparative to other angles. When he moved straight to 147 the light welter division was probably stronger that 135 but welter was absolutely STACKED.

So he moved to where both money and a potential legacy was rife. He carved out a very good career and i think he would be trouble for almost anyone at 135. He would have been a beast at 140 too and i agree with the comment above that it may well have been his sweetspot.

 

Truly enjoyed watching Mosley at lightweight, his best weight. I saw him live against Mauro Gutierrez and was extremely impressed. I later saw him live against tough John Brown, his last at lightweight. I think he went up for two reasons. One, the potential big money to fight De La Hoya, and two, it isn’t easy to keep making 135 as you age and grow and get stronger. He fought pro at lightweight for six years - ‘93 to ‘99. Mosley fought 139 as a teenage amateur. He could’ve gone up to 140 and won a title there as well, but he jumped all the way up to 147. So the biggest reason is he wanted that De La Hoya money.

 

I would've liked to of seen Mosley fight Stevie Johnston who was a skillful Southpaw and underrated and was unlucky not to get the nod vs Castillo in any of their close fights. Johnston was also a champion at the time Mosley was campaigning at Lightweight that would've been a good test for Mosley.

Other than Johnston there wern't too many other good names or big fights for Mosley, Spadafora become a champion after Mosley already moved up and the likes of Castillo and Mayweather Jr came a few years after.

I think if Mosley would've been like 5 years younger and fought at Lightweight in the 2000s there would've been some great match ups for him vs Mayweather, Castillo, Corrales, Casamayor, Spadafora, Johnston, etc.

 

The two guys he could've fought were Floyd (if he moved up for the fight) and Gatti, but Oscar brought the bag.

 

I remember looking at Shane and Oscar's shoulders when they were at their early career weights and just shaking my head. Those were not lightweight shoulders. I think Mosley VS Tszyu at 140 would've been a clear Mosley legacy notch, hypothetically. I always thought 140 was more the missed opportunity to stack up some legacy points. But the weight and the big money glory were definitely pointing toward two jumps up instead of one. I will take both of those answers as far as the why. Also, Mosley's chin and punching power were such that it was probably the best risk/reward assessment to forfeit likely dominance points at light and light welter. They had reason to think that the sheer physicality factor was not to just be taken out of the equation. And they were right. I remember thinking Mosley was going to absolutely flatline Judah. I felt so certain when that was on the table that Judah was going to be unceremoniously obliterated. It was just my gut instinct. Which hasn't been wrong a single time in the last two weeks or more. So, I'm learning it can be trusted, sometimes.

 

Right! I forgot Floyd was already holding a title only one division below. If Mosley stuck around for a year or two longer - that's assuming it was even physically possible for him - then this fight certainly would be on HBO's radar and could've been a major legacy fight. Even if the money would be nowhere near what Oscar fight offered.