by James Slater: According to an article on ESPN, to whom Golden Boy promotions recently spoke, a number of intriguing fights are in the pipeline. Reportedly, Juan Diaz will clash with Michael Katsidis on September 6th, Joel Casamayor and Juan Manuel Marquez will meet the following week and then, on October the 11th, “Sugar” Shane Mosley will fight again – and the rumour is Mosley will fight new WBC light-middleweight champion Sergio Mora..
This is some schedule Golden Boy have planned, and all three fights, should they indeed come off, will surely be very interesting affairs. In this article, however, I focus on Shane Mosley’s next fight. Though Vernon Forrest, who was shockingly out-pointed by Mora on June 7th, is reportedly dead set on enforcing the rematch clause he had going into his fight with Mora and therefore attempting to extract his revenge asap, the word is it will be Mosley who gets the next crack at the former Contender T.V star.
Now a genuine world champion, Mora should have expected he would be getting a number of big fights offered to him as soon as he pulled off the win over Forrest. Should a fight between he and Mosley actually come off, 27-year-old Mora would get the chance to beat another once great, but now veteran, fighter – just as he did with “The Viper” last Saturday. The fight makes sense for Mosley, too. Giving “Sugar” another realistic chance at reigning once again (Mosley will more than likely be made the betting favourite going into a fight with Mora), the 36-year-old would probably snap up the chance to fight “The Latin Snake” in a heartbeat.
If he’s still two thirds the fighter he was in his competitive but losing bout with Miguel Cotto, and if that fight hasn’t taken too much out of him, Mosley – even at age 36 – beats Mora. No disrespect intended towards the unbeaten 27-year-old, this is simply telling it like it is. “Sugar” Shane is one of the finest pound-for-pound fighters of the last ten years or so. And unless he gone way back since his loss to Cotto, he will not lose to someone like Sergio Mora.
If Vernon Forrest gets his way, it will be he who next fights Mora, and not Mosley. But something tells me, when everything is sorted out, it will be Shane Mosley who winds up challenging for the WBC 154 pound championship in October. Which fight would you rather see?