With Saturday’s scheduled catchweight rematch battle against fellow old timer Ricardo Mayorga in serious jeopardy due to a Don King lawsuit, “Sugar” Shane Mosley has insisted that the show will go on in L.A with or without the chain-smoking Nicaraguan in the opposite corner.
King filed emergency injunction papers in Miami recently, claiming he still has Mayorga under contract and hasn’t given his okay for him to compete in the bout, something that is looking increasingly likely to be true after last Thursday’s hearing in Miami, which Mosley attended.
However, Mosley is adamant that he will fight Saturday regardless, and is perplexed why King, who hasn’t promoted a Mayorga fight in 5 years, wants to stop the fight rather than take a cut as promoter.
“The fight’s going to go on whether it be with Mayorga or somebody that’s just as equal as him,” Mosley told FOX Sports. “I’m going to be fighting regardless. Don King or anybody isn’t going to stop me from doing my show.”
With Al Haymon’s PBC Santa Cruz/Mares fight occurring the same night in L.A, Shane ostensibly suspects sabotage, especially given the “anti-competitive tactics” already cited in the Top Rank and GBP lawsuits lodged against the elusive advisor. Why King has an investment in that though, is unclear to Mosley.
“We will find out what the judge says on Monday. Who is this benefitting being in Florida to stop the fight? Don King or is it the other promoters out there like an Al Haymon, that I guess I’m on bad promotion (terms) with because of the other fight they have? Who does this benefit? Why do they want the fight to be stopped? There’s a lot of questions.”
“(Mayorga) had two fights before this before he fought me without Don King. It’s just a tactic to stop my fight. Who benefits from trying to stop my fight? Who’s been trying to stop my fight from day one?”
Shane, who has independently promoted the event – his first fight in 2 years since injuring his back against Anthony Mundine in Australia – should now have a desperate scrabble to find anybody remotely interesting to fans at such a late hour, and even though the fight was wholly reliant on the bad blood between him and Mayorga to sell it, he claims a “better” alternative opponent is already waiting in the wings should the judge rule in King’s favour.
“My backup fighter’s actually better than Mayorga. We had some run-ins, too, with the backup opponent. So a lot of people will probably be excited about that as well. People will still get the same excitement and charge with this guy.”
“I’m definitely going to sue Don King afterwards, after all this. I know they are going to try to put a stop to it … but we’ll definitely get back at him after this fight.”
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
