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Shane Mosley, Will He Take The Paul Williams Challenge?
link --> Shane Mosley, Will He Take The Paul Williams Challenge?
During the last two weeks, WBA welterweight champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley has been aggressively pursuing fights with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Also during this time, Paul "The Punisher" Williams, has been trying to get Mosley in the ring. Williams' promoter Dan Goossen became upset when he made his daily run to BoxingScene.com and saw a particular news brief that caught his attention very quickly.
"I've been patiently ignoring commenting on observing Shane Mosely beg for fights against the smaller Manny Pacquiao and come backing Floyd Mayweather, while turning his back on the BEST Welterweight in the World today, Paul Williams. As much as I wanted to say a thing or two regarding this oversight, I gave Shane the respect of keeping quiet, which as you know is tough for me to do. But enough is enough," Goossen said.
"What got me to break my silence was reading the story by BoxingScene.com's Mark Vester with quotes from Oscar de la Hoya, Shane's promoter, saying ' Mosley would crush Pacquiao in a heartbeat. That's why I think it would never happen. Mosley is willing to come down in weight and take a smaller share of the pot, which show you he wants to fight the best. Obviously that's an admirable quality," De La Hoya told Mike Rosenthal of The Ring Online.'"
Goossen is very confident with Williams. Regardless of the risk, or the weight, Goossen is willing to make the fight. Whether it be Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik, Sergio Martinez or Mosley, Williams is ready to fight them all. His last fight, in April against Winky Wright, was at 160-pounds. Williams, before moving on to bigger and better things, wants to tie up any loose ends at 147-pounds. By dominating Wright [who beat Mosley twice], Williams thought he could lure Mosley to the table. He was wrong.
Goossen is tired of hearing Mosley's excuses about securing fights that bring him the most money. Goossen is ready to offer Mosley his biggest purse since 2007. It remains to be seen if the money Goossen is offering up is enough to get Mosley interested. He promises not to beg or resort to name calling to make the fight happen.
"Simply said, the best welterweight (141 pounds to 147 pounds) in the world today is Paul Williams. Throw Shane, Manny, Floyd, Miguel (Cotto) into the mix, it doesn't matter, Paul is still the best welterweight. As a matter of fact, we believe he is also the best Super Welterweight and Middleweight fighter in the world and there's probably an argument to be made for him at 168 pounds too. Now that's a real pound-for-pound fighter to lead our sport," Goossen said.
"Now if Oscar truly believes Shane wants to fight the best it can get done with Williams. We won't beg. We won't call Shane names. No, we will just say if he REALLY wants to fight the best, than Shane's thinking exactly the way Paul is and willing to prove it in the ring. Every built-in excuse can be used not to fight Paul, which would probably be the same excuses Shane is accusing Mayweather of using against him. If, in fact, he would resort to this, it would be inaccurate. I can confidently say we would guarantee a purse to Shane that is higher than any he's been guaranteed in any given fight since 2007."
Despite being upset, Goossen agreed with De La Hoya on one item - he doesn't believe a fight between Mosley and Manny Pacquiao will ever happen.
"Oscar also said in this piece, "I just don't feel Freddie and Manny will do it. ... Mosley is too big a threat...And it's why he's (Freddie) not going to risk his fighter's pound-for-pound status against a real champion like Mosley."
"I agree with Oscar the fight won't happen. Now lets see if Shane is willing to risk his status against a real champion like Paul Williams? Obviously if he did, that would be an admirable quality," Goossen said.
BoxingScene would contact Richard Schaefer, CEO for Golden Boy Promotions [who promote Mosley], to get his opinion on the matter. Schaefer doesn't see a Mosley-Williams fight happening. He says Mosley is very particular about the fights he currently wants, and Williams is not one of those fights. Schaefer doesn't believe that any of the top welterweights are going to fight Williams. He says the best road for Williams is to chase fights at 160 or 168, divisions where opponents are more likely to accept his call.
"I don't think that fight is going to happen. Right now Shane wants the biggest fights out there; Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr," Schaefer said.
"Williams should look at the other weights. If he were to fight Mosley, and let's say he beat him - then what? None of the other welterweights are going to fight him. At 160 he has Felix Sturm, Arthur Abraham and Kelly Pavlik. He can go to 168 and fight Chad Dawson. Williams is a good fighter. Williams is very nice, very polite, but if I was his promoter - I would look for fights at 160 or 168-pounds, where he won't have so many problems [getting fights]."
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Originally Posted by miles
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