04.01.07 – By John Chavez, BoxingConfidential.com: There are people out there that still believe Shane Mosley has the stuff that made him “Sugar”. These are the same people who buy Beanie Babies thinking that they’ll be worth something in the future. These are the same people on the O.J. Simpson murder trial jury. In essence, these people are worthless. Unfortunately, there are a lot of worthless people in this world. Shane is about as likeable a character as you can get outside of the ring. He’s polite, charming, and has a very feisty wife. The problem is that people can’t write an honest article about the man because of his amiable personality..
Shane just doesn’t fight with the confidence that he used to when he relied on having a rock solid chin and the ability to swing for the fences during exchanges, knowing he wasn’t going to be the one dropping. It’s very unfortunate that his style has changed dramatically since the first Vernon Forrest fight.
Kermit “The Killer” Cintron, is an even more unfortunate figure, who has missed a ridiculous opportunity to become a household name. Look what beating Shane Mosley has done for the careers of both Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright. It catapulted them to stardom.
It’s made them richer than they could ever imagine.
It has made them comparable to greats like Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, and Manute Bol. Ok, ok, I’m getting a little carried away here but c’mon, it was a step in the right direction for their careers. If Forrest and Winky hadn’t defeated Mosley, they still might be performing on the under-cards to more well known fighters.
The problem between Bobby Bostick and Kermit is something that should have been put aside to make this fight happen by any means necessary. He missed an opportunity to fight on HBO, in Las Vegas. More importantly he missed an opportunity to fight a very well known fighter, who by all accounts is tailor made for him.
Shane is a small welterweight coming off two overrated wins against an even more overrated Fernando Vargas. When I state that Shane is tailor made for Kermit, it’s based on the state of the current welterweight division. A fight with Mosley offers… I mean offered a chance to fight a guy who people still viewed as one of the best out. Nobody else in the welterweight division brings that to the table.
Let’s hypothesize about what would have occurred in Cintron’s career had he beaten Mosley.
It would have been early in 2007 and Kermit would have potentially had a knockout victory over Shane Mosley on HBO.
Think about that for a second.
From a mainstream perspective a knockout victory over Shane catapults Cintron’s career more than avenging his loss against Margarito, more than knocking out Paul Williams, and more than beating up Luis Collazo. I’m not stating that from a hardcore fan’s perspective, just from a financial and mainstream level.
Who is Cintron going to fight now that the Mosley fight is off the table?
I can guarantee you it will be against somebody that presents more stylistic problems than Shane did, offers less money, less exposure, and less mainstream credibility. Call me crazy but I would venture to say that a fight with Mr. De La Hoya was not out of the question had Kermit iced Shane Mosley.
It’s a sad thing when managerial and promotional problems get in the way of making career altering fights. I wish Kermit the best but there’s not doubt that a golden opportunity was missed. Maybe he’ll get another chance…they rarely do.