By Rob Smith: The World Boxing Council has given 40-year-old Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) an inflated ranking of #3 in the junior middleweight division as Mosley heads forward to a title shot against undefeated WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) next month on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mosley, however, hasn’t won a fight since January 2009 and it’s difficult to understand the reasoning by the WBC for them to rank Mosley so high with him done so poorly in the past few years. When he signed on to fight the 21-year-old Alvarez, Mosley wasn’t ranked at all by the WBC, but since then Mosley has been pushed not into the top 15 but all the way to the #3 spot, above guys like Erislandy Lara and Paul Williams.
Granted, the junior middleweight division is a weak one, but having Mosley pushed to the #3 spot by the WBC doesn’t seem right given Mosley’s lack of wins since 2009.
Mosley has fought three times since his lack victory over Antonio Margarito in January 2009. Here are the results:
• 5/1/10: Mosley loses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision
• 9/18/10: Mosley fights to a 12 round draw with Sergio Mora. Mosley looks terrible and probably deserves to lose the fight by at least a couple of rounds.
• 5/07/11: Mosley beaten by Manny Pacquiao by a 12 round unanimous decision.
How is it then that Mosley can receive a #3 ranking when he’s fought so poorly since 2010? It makes the WBC’s rankings look bad when you’ve got a fighter ranked in the top five with no wins since 2009. It’s not good for boxing because it sets up mismatches like this with Mosley against Alvarez. Mosley has no real chance in this fight unless he can do something in the first three rounds. After three rounds, Mosley will likely gas out and start running and the fight will turn into a big stinker with Alvarez dominating the rest of the way.