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Mayweather-Mosley no consolation prize

February 4, 2010 04:48 PM | Posted by   Chris Iorfida  

Boxing fans have been beseeching Floyd Mayweather to step up the level of competition for years, so it's a little hard to fathom that in the same calendar year he could potentially face Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather signed on Wednesday to face Mosley on May 1, shifting gears after negotiations with the Pacquiao camp for the most lucrative fight of all time fell through after a dispute involving Olympic-style blood testing.

Pacquiao had earlier moved on from the failed talks to prep for Joshua Clottey in a March 13 bout in front of what is expected to be a huge crowd at Cowboys Stadium.

Mosley had been preparing for what would have likely have been a corker of a bout on Jan. 30 against unbeaten Andre Berto, but the Haitian-American Berto pulled out to concentrate his energies on helping relatives and countrymen devastated by the earthquake.

If you consider it a disappointment that Mayweather is fighting Mosley instead of Pacquiao, you are either: 1. Filipino, 2. Not a hardcore boxing fan, or 3. A sports reporter who doesn't pay attention to boxing 99 per cent of the time but still feels confident opining on which fights must happen to "save boxing."

Yes, Mayweather-Pacquiao is a bigger, higher-profile bout for the sport, but the alternative is still an A-plus matchup and could arguably turn out to be an even better fight. Pacquiao is the most explosive of the trio, but it can be argued that the other two have more dimensions to their game.

Coveted fight

The fact of the matter is that Mayweather-Mosley is a fight that's been coveted for about a decade, about eight years longer than Mayweather-Pacquiao.

In effect, boxing now has an unofficial welterweight tournament going on. Two top-notch fights, plus you have to figure Berto will get back in the mix at the some point after his selfless move.

Could Mayweather or Pacquiao blow their boffo payday for a fight against each other – estimated to be at least $25 million US for each – by losing these interim bouts?

Sure, but why should that be our concern? The more great matchups fight fans get to see, the better, and to the best go the spoils.

Should Mayweather and Pacquiao win these bouts, the clamour will only be greater for them to step in the ring, heightening interest.

The fact that the bouts are taking place six weeks apart doesn't hurt either. If Pacquiao beats another strong welterweight in Clottey, that's only going to please the Vegas houses even more.

Big bets

Art Manteris of Sportsbook Casinos originally made Pacquiao an 8-to-5 favourite for a Mayweather bout after his impressive win over Miguel Cotto in November. Manteris later admitted he might have overshot the initial projection (and how), but it sure inspired action – reportedly in the form of several $20,000 US or more bets on Mayweather.

Other places were more in line with the projections of boxing observers, with Pacquiao a +130 underdog. Should he beat Clottey in impressive fashion, that line will move.

And let's call it like it is. Had Mayweather fought and beat Pacman in March, we'd never see him a ring with Mosley, ever. He'd have considered his ring legacy cemented and would have milked us for occasional bouts against uninspired competition while continuing to revel in his celebrity status.

After all, when it first appeared that the Mayweather-Pacquiao boaut would fall through, some possible opponents that were floated for the flashy Las Vegas native were Paul Malignaggi (ugh) and Matthew Hatton (gross).

If Pacquiao were to have defeated Mayweather in March he too would have likely gone after not a Mosley or Berto, but someone of the order of Yuri Foreman, an opponent that could have given the Filipino a chance at another trinket but one that hardly gets the blood boiling.

Legit fight

Given that Mayweather's previous two fights were against Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton, Mosley will be the first legitimate welterweight he's faced in three years, or since he took on Oscar De La Hoya, otherwise known as the last fight that "saved boxing."

Mosley's reputation took a hit after it was revealed that he testified to a grand jury in the BALCO case that in 2003 he obtained from the lab the energy booster EPO (erythropoeitin), and designed steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone).

Despite those revelations, boxing hasn't changed its testing protocol for big fights one bit.

"They [the commissions] test for a basic, simple menu that anybody with a heartbeat will escape," chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Association, Travis Tygart, told the Grand Rapids Press last month.

Should the Mosley-Mayweather blood testing process take place without a hitch, it will make it much more difficult for the Paccquiao camp to try and control the process, as they sought to do in the first negotations. The argument of "we've always been clean" would seem to hold less sway.

What to watch

The fight to look for this weekend on Superchannel or on the internet is the lightweight battle between Edwin Valero and Antonio DeMarco (the broadcast originates from Showtime in the U.S).

Valero has knocked out all 26 men he's faced ahead of Saturday's bout, but he's never met anyone as durable as DeMarco, who's won his last dozen fights. For good measure, the Venezuelan Valero will be fighting in front of a pro-DeMarco crowd in Mexico.

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