Is Shane Mosley Overrated?

On Saturday, Shane Mosley, 41-4 (34), will battle Fernando Vargas, 26-2 (22), at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada in a WBA Junior Middleweight title elimination bout on HBO pay per view. Many boxing insiders are picking Mosley to easily outbox Vargas, and win a unanimous decision victory. Why? These so called boxing insiders believe Vargas is a “shot fighter”,

because of suffering brutal defeats to Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Vargas has also suffered back injuries and battled weight in order to remain in the 154lb division. On paper, Mosley also defeated one of Vargas’ conquerors, De La Hoya, and previously won three world championships in three weight divisions (lightweight, welterweight, junior middleweight). But apart from Oscar De La Hoya, whom has Mosley beaten? This young man, Mosley, won his first world title, the IBF Lightweight Championship on February 8, 1997, by defeating Philip Holiday. Failing to secure significant unification bouts with other champions from other sanctioning bodies, he abdicated his title and moved up two weight classes to the 147lb division after making eight successful lightweight title defenses within two years.

He made his welterweight debut against the limited Wilfredo Rivera of Puerto Rico, scoring a tenth round TKO. After another bout with an even more limited opponent, Willie Wise, he received a golden opportunity to face boxing’s Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya. To Mosley’s credit, he would defeat Oscar with a close split decision victory and win the WBC Welterweight Championship, his second world title. What does a split decision victory mean? It means out of the three judges assigned to judge a fight, two believe one fighter won the fight, and the other judge scores the fight in favor of the other fighter. Scores were 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of Mosley and the other judge 115-113 in favor of Del La Hoya. After the fight, Max Kellerman, a respected boxing analyst and former Espn2 Friday Night Fights co-host, praised Mosley as if he were the best fighter to ever lace up a pair of gloves! Sugar Shane Mosley this… Sugar Shane Mosley that… He spoke of Mosley as if he were better than “Sugar” Ray Leonard! I will not even make a comparison between Mosley and Robinson, because that is insulting. I will compare Leonard and Mosley.

The major difference between Mosley and Leonard are the “big fights”. Leonard, in his prime, “won the big fights.” In my opinion, with the exception of two controversial decisions against Oscar, who has Mosley beaten? Instead of fighting the elite fighters such as Trinidad, Quartey, Wright, etc…back in 2000 fresh off his first victory over De La Hoya, he fought Antonio Diaz, Shannon Taylor, and Adrian Stone. Leonard beat Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran (in a rematch) in their primes. The aforementioned Leonard’s opponents were elite fighters.

Mosley believed his press clippings. He apparently really believed he was “Sugar” Shane Mosley. He signed to fight Vernon Forrest, who at the time was 34-0 and on top of his game,
on January 26, 2002. Forrest beat up Mosley. Mosley, so convinced his defeat was a fluke loss, fought a rematch with “The Viper” six months later. Mosley’s performance in the rematch was better, but still not enough to defeat the superior Forrest.

His next bout was an ugly fight which resulted in a no contest decision with former faded champion Raul Marquez. Oscar, seeking revenge in a rematch, fought Mosley on September 13, 2003. Oscar lost, in my opinion, a controversial unanimous decision to Mosley. This gave Mosley the WBA and WBC Junior Middleweight Championships, his third world title in as many divisions. Perhaps trying to prove he was worthy of the praise he was given by some boxing writers in the past and to silence critics such as myself, he fought the best fighter in the division, IBF Champion Ronald “Winky” Wright. On March 13, 2004, Winky defeated Mosley to become the undisputed champion of the 154lb division. It was a complete shut out! Mosley was again defeated by Wright in their rematch seven months later.

Mosley is currently on a two fight winning streak, which does not prove that he is capable of beating today’s elite fighters in his division. Is Sugar Shane Mosley overrated? Yes! Shane Mosley is no “Sugar” Shane Mosley. He is Shane Mosley, “arguably a great fighter”. Shane Mosley, “a three division champion”. I can’t take that away from him. However, he is not in the same category of “Sugar” Ray Leonard, definitely not “Sugar” Ray Robinson. So what can we expect of Shane Mosley this Saturday? Will his new trainer and attitude make a difference in his performance? It will be a competitive bout if Shane chooses to box and fight. It might even be a great fight to be remembered, but he will lose to Vargas. Vargas by a 9th round TKO.