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 Shane Mosley 3.0
 by Thomas Gerbasi (January 7, 2003)
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Junior middleweight. It’s the third weight division for former lightweight and welterweight champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley, and probably the final career stop for Pomona’s finest. He fights former 154-pound champ Raul Marquez on February 8, and after two consecutive losses to Vernon Forrest, a defeat at the hands of another amateur peer could make this third stop a short one.
Mosley believes the best is yet to come and he’s digging into his past to ensure a successful future.
“My mindset is getting back to the old way I used to fight,” Mosley told MaxBoxing from his Big Bear, California training camp. “I want to incorporate some of the style I had as a lightweight with my welterweight style, put it all together and have a complete Sugar Shane at 154.”
Still confident in his abilities as well as in his place in the boxing world, Mosley nonetheless sounds like a different person from his lost year of 2002, where the first two losses of his career had him reeling in the media’s harsh glare.
Entangled in a vine of sour grapes, Mosley seemed unable to accept defeat at the hands of Forrest, and the war of words between two of the sport’s class acts in the press was unbecoming to both men.
But in the almost six months since the rematch loss, Mosley, if not fully accepting of the defeats, at least has decided to move on.
“I think the break has been good for me,” Mosley, 38-2 (35 KOs), admits. “And now coming back and getting into it, I can feel myself coming into my own, the way I like to box. I like to move and jab and see the punches come at me. I feel great and I feel comfortable.”
At 154, Mosley is once again freed from the restraints of making weight, a struggle since his days at lightweight, where he reigned as champion for almost two years. More importantly though, junior middleweight is where the money is, with intriguing matchups with the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Winky Wright and Fernando Vargas all at his doorstep.
But while all doors will be closed if he loses to Marquez, it’s an unlikely occurrence, especially since the closest the former junior middleweight champ has gotten to a boxing ring against a quality foe in recent years is in his job as color commentator on HBO’s Spanish language boxing telecasts. Marquez (34-2, 23 KOs) only has one fight under his belt in the last year, and his tender skin and less than stellar defense is seemingly tailor-made for Mosley. Then again, the same thing was said about Wilfredo Rivera, Mosley’s first opponent at 147, who gave “Sugar” Shane hell before being stopped in the final round.
“I’m not looking past Marquez because he’s a different type of fighter,” said Mosley, 31. “He’s a southpaw, he’s hungry and he wants to be in contention with all the rest of us. I have to make sure that he won’t be in contention with us, and further his retirement so he can go back to HBO Latino and further his career there.”
Mosley laughs and it’s an easy laugh, with no signs of the bad blood that made its way into the two Forrest fights. The two combatants on February 8 have known each other since both were at the Olympic Training Center in 1992, and there is not only mutual respect, but also a mutual like between them.
“He hung out with Oscar a lot, but we always talked,” said Mosley of Marquez, 31, a 1992 Olympic Silver Medallist. “I think he’s a cool person and he has a burning desire to get back in contention by winning this fight. I have a burning desire to bring back what I once had, and that’s getting in there and wiping the whole division out.”
To most observers though, Raul Marquez is a strange choice to start with if you want to clean out a division, especially since names like Javier Castillejo and Daniel Santos were initially mentioned as being in the running to be Mosley’s first 154-pound opponent. But between Mosley’s desire to fight anyone short of Lennox Lewis (“He’s a little too big”) and the bottom line of putting together a fight financially, the only fighter willing to fight “Sugar” Shane and fit into HBO’s budget was Marquez.
“It’s very frustrating because I’m trying to make it work, and people try to make it seem like I’m the bad guy,” said Mosley. “Really, the only thing I want to do is get in there and fight. I’m a fighter one way or another. I’ll line ‘em up and we can schedule all of them, because one way or another, I’m going to hit everybody. That’s my goal – to hit everybody at 154 – Daniel Santos, Castillejo, De La Hoya, Winky Wright, Vargas – and then when Vernon comes up, him again. I’m going to hit all of them.”
That’s the attitude that endeared Mosley to the fans, the media, and his fellow fighters. But what’s good for the fans may not be the recipe for a long fruitful career. Some even criticized Mosley for jumping directly into a rematch with Forrest instead of taking a tune-up or two to build up his confidence. That’s just not his style.
“It wouldn’t be fun then,” said Mosley. “It would be too planned out. I’m not someone who is going to wait around; I want to do it. I’m right there in the moment and if I feel good, I can take on the world. I still have that attitude and I think that’s what the fans love. They know that when I go out there, nine times out of ten they’re going to see a great fight. They’re going to see me make the fight and bring the fight while trying to knock the guy out. They’ll see a lot of action, a lot of speed, power, everything. I think they always get their money’s worth when they watch me fight.”
There’s no more talk about head butts or bad decisions, and by losing, Mosley may have reinvigorated his career. No longer forced to deal with the pressure of being boxing’s best pound for pound, he has seen the bandwagon riders jump to the wayside, and he can focus on fighting, his true passion.
“I reached the top of my career, where I was the top guy, and I still believe I can get up there again,” said Mosley. “But my thing now is for the fans. When I fight, I fight for the fans. Before I fought more for myself and I wanted to win and be the best. I still want to be the greatest, but the fans are who make you, so why not make them happy and give them good fights? When I train, I train hard so when I get in there the fans know that I’m going to give 100%. All anybody can ask is that I give my best. The bandwagon jumpers, that’s all fine. It’s all part of the game and that’s what they do in sports. When you start losing they jump away, but when you start winning they’re back. Everybody wants to be with a winner, and that’s just the nature of life. I can’t fault them for that.”
And while the fans may be fickle, Mosley has not been. Despite the rumors, despite the editorial opinions, Team Mosley, from trainer and father Jack down to publicist Norman Horton has remained intact. That’s just the way he wants it.
“I haven’t really been reading the papers or listening to the media, so I really have a deaf ear to it,” said Mosley of the rumors of change within his team. “But if it is out there, as long as my name is kept out there, I’m happy. They can continue to mention me and my father’s names, and when I come back and do my thing, they can applaud my father for being the great trainer that he is.”
Shane Mosley is back and his attitude confirms it. And the way he sees it, 2003 will be the year he gets back on track to sit in the history books with the great Sugars.
“I’m still up there with the Sugars,” said Mosley. “All the Sugars lost. Sugar Ray Robinson lost but he showed a lot of class and a lot of heart, and I think he fought a lot for the fans’ enjoyment and to be the best. He loved the sport just like me. That’s who I look up to, and that’s who I admire the most.”
E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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