Sugar Shane Mosley 46-6 39 KOs climbs into the ring to fight Sergio Mora 22-1-1 6 KOs on a boxing card coming up on
September 18 in Los Angeles.
You may have missed the announcement of these headliners due to the sensational headlines garnered by the rude, nasty video rant of Floyd Mayweather Jr. or the three-city publicity tour for the November 13 bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito that will take place in Dallas.
During a media conference call on Wednesday, Golden Boy Promotions and the fighters pumped up the volume about their bout and discussed the HBO pay-per-view event that will be held at the Staples Center.
While each fighter spoke about his motivation to do his best as well as why the public should pick him to emerge victorious, Shane Mosley was quite patient as almost every question posed to him mentioned his recent 39th birthday. In answer to one reporter’s inquiry about how long he thinks he can box, Sugar Shane looked at Bernard Hopkins, who still fights at the age of 44 for inspiration.
“I think I can do what he has done. I am in great shape and keep myself that way in between fights. I’ll know when it’s time, I definitely will.”
When asked if he and his trainer Nazeem Richardson had figured out what the heck happened to him after the second round of his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in May, Mosley denied that he had tired at that point. He laid the issue at the feet of Nazeem, who he said had corrected whatever had been lacking in his training.
Mosley went on to say that if he lost to Sergio Mora it would be a setback in his quest to continue to fight and that he is not at any disadvantage fighting a guy who is a middleweight. The way Mosley sees it, Mora had to come down in weight for the junior middleweight bout, while Shane had to go up.
On Mora’s part, he could not have been more excited to tout his chances against a guy that he showed reverence for and continually called a future Hall of Famer. In answer to a question about why he thinks his fight deserves attention. Mora was quick to say that styles make fights.
In the upcoming contest with Mosley he intends to feed off his opponent, continue to throw punches in bunches, as he put it and try to lead the action and the pace.”When did I ever have the leisure to lose?”, he said in response to a question about it being a must-win. “Every fight for me is a must win. When I have a good camp, without any excuses, I believe I can fight the best. ”
The undercard features rising Mexican star, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez taking on former world champion, Carlos “Tata” Baldomir, top junior welterweight contender, “Vicious” Victor Ortiz vs. former world champ “Vicious” Vivian Harris and former world champ Daniel Ponce De Leon fighting the No. 2 ranked featherweight, Antonio Escalante in a WBO Featherweight Title Elimination bout.
A more detailed version of this story can be found on Duffy’s Examiner column here.
For Staples Center ticket information or to find a movie theater location to view the fight, go to Golden Boy’s website, here.
Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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