Ringside Boxing Report: Shane Mosley – Luis Collazo

Photos © Natasha Chornesky/SaddoBoxing

This past Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, 35 year old Shane Mosley proved to all doubters that he still has what it takes to fight at the championship level in boxing’s 147 pound division. Mosley scored an impressive 119-109, 118-109 (twice) unanimous decision over crafty southpaw Luis Collazo to win the Interim WBC Welterweight title.

After capturing a title at 154 pounds in 2003 and losing it in 2004, Mosley, 44-4 (37), has spent the past couple of years bouncing between the light middle and welter divisions, trying to find his way back to the championship level. Mosley stated he’s best at 147 and he may be right after Saturday night’s performance in regaining the interim version of the title that he held in 2000 and 2001.

The opening minutes of the HBO televised event were closely fought, showcasing Mosley’s speed advantage and the difficulty that Collazo, 27-3 (13), presented for Mosley in his southpaw stance. No meaningful punches were landed as the fighters figured each other out, but Mosley was a little busier and more accurate to take the round.

Collazo landed a head-snapping straight left hand to get a rise out of the crowd in round two. Another straight left, followed by a right hook, gave Collazo a commanding lead in the round. The combatants landed simultaneous clean punches, a Collazo left and a Mosley right, to draw smiles and nods in appreciation of each other.

Mosley tried flurrying punches late and raising his arms on the way back to his corner, but the judges and crowd knew it was clearly Collazo’s round and a fight was on.

Most of the middle rounds were competitively fought as Collazo seemingly landed the more telling blows, but they were few and far between as the older man simply outworked and out hustled the New York based Puerto Rican and was far more accurate with his punches.

Collazo did well when he pressed the action and stayed busy, but just as in his previous close loss to England’s Ricky Hatton, the southpaw showed lulls in his punch output, giving determined opponents the opportunity to put rounds in the bank.

The eighth round was the bout’s most exciting and was the turning point in the fight. Mosley drew upon his championship heart and experience to raise his game to a higher level that Collazo just couldn’t match.

The Pomona, CA native opened up with a flush right hand to Collazo’s chin, followed up with two nice body punches. Collazo responded with a hard left hand that momentarily stopped the Golden Boy promoted fighter, but Mosley showed his world class chin could easily handle Collazo’s average punching power and soon resumed his attack, digging hard to the body and head to take over the fight.

Although Collazo was awarded the ninth round on one judge’s scorecard, his confidence that he could win the fight was dwindling away, as he was overwhelmed by the unaccustomed power and particularly speed that Mosley presented him with.

Mosley upped his work rate to sweep the championship rounds and punctuated the victory with a right hand that knocked Collazo down in the eleventh round.

Further proving Mosley’s dominance in the fight was the fact that that “Sugar Shane”, despite throwing 38 fewer punches in the bout, landed 113 more blows than ex-WBA Welterweight title holder Collazo.

Ever gracious in the post fight press conference, Mosley stated that the young, skilled Collazo was a tougher fight for him than he expected, and that his twenty-five year old opponent had a promising future.

As for Mosley’s own future, he rattled off all the top names in today’s competitive welterweight division and remarked that he’d be happy to find out who’s the best 147 lb pound fighter in the world.