© Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions

Former world champions Ricardo Mayorga and Shane Mosley may not be top caliber light middleweights anymore but they refuse to go away quietly as they rocked the Staples Center in Los Angeles last night with a thrilling back and forth epic that saw both men have their moments before Mosley's punches finally took their toll.

Mayorga's bull-like rushes had Mosley on the back foot early on as the former three weight world champ absorbed the body attack and roughhousing while he studied his antagonist.

The education began to pay off as Mosley started to time Mayorga and catch the Nicaraguan hard man with bracing blows on the way in.

By the middle rounds, Mosley's edge in quickness and skill were taking their toll.

But Mayorga stepped it up and turned the bout into an ugly, brawling affair that proved hard to score as the pair fought for supremacy on the inside.

No one really drew clear until the end of the twelfth and final frame when Mosley began landing heavy combination shots and down went Mayorga. He beat the count but was hammered with a fully flush power left hook from Mosley and stayed on the floor for several minutes as Mosley was declared the winner by KO at 2:59 of the round.

The undercard was carried by the lightning quick hands of WBC Welterweight Champion Andre Berto, 23-0 (19), who fenced with former IBF Super Feather titlist Steve Forbes, 33-7 (9), for twelve rounds in a mostly defensive battle that Berto won by scores of 118-109 twice and 116-111.

For Berto, it was a confident first defense of the title won against Miguel Angel Rodriguez in June.

© Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions

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