|
|
 Shane Moves On
By Steve Kim (May 27, 2004)
 Send this page to friend Give us your feedback
It's a face that Shane Mosley has probably seen more than any other throughout his 32 years. But that familiar face won't be in the corner the next time you see Mosley in the ring.
In the wake of his disappointing loss to Winky Wright in March, Mosley decided to relieve his father, Jack, of his training duties. It was decided, that like most father/son relationships in this game, they could only go so far.
Unlike most of these unions, it was a highly successful partnership that saw Mosley win titles in three weight classes and for much of the past six years be considered among the best fighters in the game. But it was clear during the one-sided loss to Wright that they had hit a wall. Mosley's mark in his last five fights is 1-3, with one 'no contest'. That one win, the rematch against Oscar De La Hoya, was a highly disputed one, at that.
To move forward, Mosley has tabbed the highly regarded Joe Goossen to replace his father, and while the planned rematch against Wright is tentatively scheduled for November, Mosley has already begun working with his new trainer, going twice a week to Goossen's gym in Van Nuys.
"I'm adjusting very well because I've known Joe for such a long time," said Mosley this past Tuesday afternoon after his workout. "I fought the Ruelas brothers when I was like 12, 13 years old. He knows my temperament, how I feel and everything, and I know he's a serious trainer and coach. I think we'll have a wonderful time together."
For Mosley, while it may have been an easy decision to replace his father at the time he did, nonetheless, it was a difficult one to execute.
"It was very difficult to do that," he admitted. "But I think that because of circumstances, personal circumstances, that it was having an effect on our training regimen and the way we boxed."
Mosley didn't get into specifics on what were those 'personal circumstances', but sources close to the situation say that Jack had started to turn some of his attention to managing some hip-hop groups, that in turn had taken some of his focus away from his son. The father and son had begun to spend less and less time with each other away from the gym, and it was also no secret that the father and Shane's wife, Jin, did not see eye-to-eye.
It's obvious that these problems had been simmering. So the question is, should he have made this move sooner?
"I don't know, I mean, some people said,' yeah' but my father's a great trainer when motivated, and when he has his whole heart into it, he's one of the best out there," said Mosley, in a rather revealing quote. "It's kinda hard to go away from what you know; I know my father's a great trainer, I know he's knows his stuff and he can work miracles in there. But I guess as you get a lil' older or whatever, it just doesn't happen. I guess the time was now."
But the father feels as though it was his son who wasn't fully focused on boxing.
"The thing is, he's got a lot of distractions and that's one of the things that happens, I guess, when you got distractions," said Jack Mosley about the situation. "I'm fine, just doing my thing," continued the elder Mosley, who's now training light heavyweight contender Paul Briggs and heavyweight Jay Horton.
He says his son was pressured from external forces to replace him.
"I think so," he says. Did it come from his wife? "I ain't going to mention no names," he said, with a chuckle.
But he points out that he and his son are not estranged by any means.
"We still talk, it's no big thing, I've always been the kind of guy I take care of myself," said Mosley, who in 1998 was named 'Trainer of the Year'. "I don't live my life through my son. I've been living my own life, all my life. So whatever decisions he made, that's fine, he's his own man, now."
While he may not live vicariously through Shane, no matter what he does, he'll always be defined in many respects by what his son has accomplished. And he feels that a new trainer won't suddenly produce a new and improved 'Sugar' Shane.
"I developed Shane from scratch, that's what I got to go on," he says proudly and defiantly. "So it's up to Shane, if he made that decision for Joe Goossen to train him. I don't know who made that decision, I don't know if it was him or the people around him, Judd Burstein or whoever. I don't know who made that
decision, but the whole thing I know is Shane is already trained. It's how much can you do when somebody's already trained?"
Burstein, who represents Mosley, denies that he had any influence on his client to make a change in the corner.
"I understand and believe that my role with Shane and other clients is limited to legal and business advice. The decision on what trainer to employ is a decision that Shane and Shane makes alone," said Burstein in his best attorney-speak.
Goossen, despite his impressive track record, really opened some eyes when he guided Diego Corrales to a revenge win over his former fighter Joel Casamayor, just a week before Mosley would lose to Wright. It was on the strength of that win that Goossen started to receive strong consideration for the job. He would eventually be tabbed to lead Mosley into the ring for his next fight.
Goossen is excited by the opportunity, but also mindful of the work put in by the father.
"The best way I can acknowledge Shane Mosley's father, Jack's, legacy, is by acknowledging it verbally, which I have on several occasions," he says. "You know, he did something I could never do - of course he had an extremely talented son - but that was to take somebody to super-stardom, and it's not an easy thing to do. Because when you get to that level, it's so easy to get bumped off at any given time. So I give him so much credit and I really feel honored to be able to inherit Shane as a fighter at this stage of his career.
"I have run into Jack since the announcement of me training Shane, and we talked about it and there's no hard feelings about anything and I'm just very lucky and fortunate to be in this position."
And Goossen agrees with the father that, in many respects, Shane is a 'made' fighter. His job is to fine-tune, not do an complete overhaul.
"I would think so," he agreed. "I think that assessment is correct. You're not going to do too many things to Shane Mosley that he hasn't already seen or done anyway. I would think that when we sit down and go over tapes, especially the last one because we're going to have a rematch with Winky Wright. I think the key is to focus on what he didn't do, what he should've done, what Winky Wright did well and how we can offset that."
But Goossen isn't hearing any talk of his newest fighter being 'finished' or 'shot'.
"When I hear that, I gotta laugh," he says. "And the reason I say that is because I pose this question to everyone that asks me that - and I get asked that quite often - I ask, 'In the forty-some-odd fights Shane Mosley had, name me the fight where he took some punishment?'"
The first Vernon Forrest fight?
"Ok," agreed Goossen. "So then I ask the next question, ' Name me someone else that punished him?' And you're going to be hard-pressed to find an answer to that. He's had two rough fights in his career. Now, of course the last fight was probably the lowest rung in terms of his performance, energy, and just overall presence in the ring, he just didn't look like it coming in.
"It certainly revealed itself during the fight, but I think that's an anomaly and something that will never happen again."
Mosley says that in the midst of his bout with Wright, he just knew he didn't have it on that night. Like a man sinking in quicksand, he was powerless to pull himself up.
"I never been through anything like that ever in all my years of fighting," he says, recalling his effort. "It was the weirdest thing; the second round hit, it's like someone just jumped on me and zapped my energy. It was a disgusting feeling, actually. But nevertheless I fought through it the whole fight and I knew that I had a rematch clause so I was waiting on that.
"I wasn't myself that fight and that's taking nothing away from Winky, because Winky's a great fighter and he's the champion and everything, a good guy. It's just that I know what I can do and I didn't get a chance to do what I was supposed to do in that fight."
Going against conventional wisdom that says that perhaps he should have a tune-up fight or two with Goossen, Mosley is insistent on enforcing his rematch clause.
"Yeah, I want the immediate rematch; I think I can beat Winky and I don't even think it's really going to be that hard. But the only way we'll see is if we get in the ring and we do it again. That will tell the whole story."
Perhaps it was time for a change. Changes are oftentimes difficult to make, but they can be beneficial. Based on recent results, it seems the Mosleys had hit the wall. Perhaps things got stale between the two and they had begun to tune each other out. It happens in a lot of relationships, whether it's a marriage, a CEO of a company or a father training his son.
"I don't think that happened with my father," Shane insists. "I think other things happened with my father, personal things that happened to us as a team. It's a thing where one side is giving 100-percent and the other side's kinda giving 20-30-percent. That happens and it's not a good mix."
Mosley and Goossen have a great rapport together, and as Mosley warms up in the gym, they laugh, joke and talk about what they had done the previous night. It's clear that this is what Mosley wants and needs at this stage of his career.
"It's a good feeling, it's a great friendship that we always had," Mosley says. "Even when I was fighting against one of his guys, Wilfredo Rivera, or even the Ruelas brothers. So we always had a good rapport; it's just a good thing, it's a good feeling to come to the gym and know that they have your best interest at heart and know they want you to do the best. When I go into the ring to fight, I know I can trust Joe to give me what he feels is the correct information."
Meanwhile, Jack, goes on training other fighters, but not the one he'll always be remembered for. But he's not closing the door on anything.
"It was a great experience," he says. "And y'know what? We did it together and who knows, he might say, 'Ok, dad, I need you to train me again.' That would be fine, too. Like I say, he's still my son. So whatever he needs done, I gotta support him and be with him because you just never know. I ain't letting nobody break us up."
Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
Steve Kim's Column Archives - Click Here
|
