The legacy of Sugar Shane Mosely.

[Galaxy]

Why do you list Leonard when he never fought at 135? Why would he fight Johnson when he could move up and challenge ODLH for big money? Shane would have destroyed Stevie Johnson. There was no need to urgency to unify the belts because everybody knew Shane was clearly tops at 135 and the public was far more interested in Shane moving up in weight than fight in weak LW division. Not for nothing, but Duran's (who is one of my favorite fighters) fought lots of crap at 135. De Jesus and Buchanan were probably his two best opponents at 135. His crowning moment was beating Sugar Ray, and that came at WW.

Benny Leonard not Ray Leonard!

Becoming undisputed champion means more than just holding a belt. Duran, Leonard, Whitaker, Gans, Williams, Brown, Ortiz, Canzoneri, Ambers & Welsh were all world champions at 135, Shane was just a belt holder!!! How does interest in fighting Oscar effect Shane's all time ranking at 135? It doesn't! Becoming World champion would have helped.

Duran had 12 title defenses, 11 by KO & reigned for 6 years. Duran could do it all in the ring. He could make guys miss then he'd kill their body. He could cut of the ring on some of the best movers, he could switch between southpaw & orthodox seamlessly. Duran was born to fight!!!

I agree that Duran could do it all and I'm not saying that Shane is ahead of Duran. Keep in mind, that Duran won the belt before alphabet soup, so he didn't have the problem of having lesser guys out there than he needed to fight to be considered the real champ. He one the belt, then beat up on mostly mediocre fighters for 6 years.

It's also almost impossible to compare Shane to Benny Leonard. He was in such an earlier era. It's not even like Robinson, where we have a good amount of decent tape on him.

I just don't care that Shane didn't unify at 135. He had nothing to prove in that division at the time. He was head and shoulders above everyone else, and all the clamor was for him to fight Oscar. Whitaker has real opponents, decent beltholters to fight to make unifying worth it. Had there been another beltholder on the level of Azumah Nelson that Mosley ducked, fine, kill him for it, but I don't give a rat's ass that Shane skipped Stevie Johnson to move up to fight Oscar when the whole boxing world was asking for it.

At 135, Shane was a force of nature, and there is only a handful of fighters who could hang with him at that weight - Duran, Mayweather, Whitaker. Maybe old Benny Leonard had more longevity, but doubt he had more talent and skill than Shane.

It's like keeping Jim Rice out the baseball of fame because he didn't play long enough to pad his stats. If you are of a certain mindset, he doesn't deserve it because he comes up short in the stats game, but when you use your eyes and your brains, you know he belongs. Everybody new he was the most feared right handed bat in the league for 10 years. You can point to inflated numbers from longer careers, but I look at how dominate you were at the time and your overall skills, and Shane is CLEARLY at best a top 5 LW and no worse than top 10.

Take a look at Mosleys challenges if you want to see mediocre... Gomez, Ceballos, Ruiz, Morales, Johnson, Brown... Leija & Molina weren't prime.

When ranking ATG's in a weight class from different eras you have to look at their overall body of work. You should do some research on Leonard you might be surprised his numbers are amazing! Over 200 fights & just 5 loses. 3 of those loses came in his 1st year as a pro. 1 in his last fight. The other was a dq to Jack Britton for the 147 pound championship. Leonard fought the best lightweights & welterweights around & was winning. Leonard fought everyone & is one of the greatest fighters P4P ever!

You say you don't care about Mosley not unifying & had nothing to prove but he had everything to prove if he wanted to be considered among the best 135's ever. That's what he had to prove. (Mike Tyson seemed head & shoulders above Douglas but we know what happened there, thats why they fight the fights!).

I've never said Mosley does not belong in the hall of fame, but IMO he does belong in the top 10 greatest lightweights ever. I'd rate him about 13th. As I said in a previous post ability wise he belongs with those guys but his credentials don't stack up to the other guys. Mosley's lightweight legacy isn't legendary. It's good!

Putting Mosley in the top 5 is insulting to Gans & Williams. Putting Mosley in the top 10 based on what he achieved at 135 just shows you need to do some research on guys like Brown (an even greater lightweight once he won the title), Ortiz (who fought every credible challenger available), Canzoneri (1 ko loss in 175 fights), Montgomery (Williams & Jack triangle, those six fights represented the Bobcat at his very best), Jack (fought more main events at Madison Square Garden than any other fighter), Ambers (fought the best lightweights around), Welsh (won newspaper decisions over the great Benny Leonard). These guys have got legendary lightweight legacies. Not just good ones!!!