Mayweather vs Mosley: What We Did and Didn't Learn

Michael Nelson gives his thoughts on this past Saturday welterweight showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley.

I found it peculiar that in the aftermath of Floyd Mayweather's deconstruction of Shane Mosley, many in the online community were suddenly convinced that Mayweather would not only beat Manny Pacquiao, but embarrass him.

Make no mistake, Floyd put on one of the more spectacular performances of his career. Most of us thought he would use his legs to outmaneuver and potshot his bigger opponent. Nope. He came forward behind his shoulder and stalked a man proven to have threatening power. Most of us thought his punches wouldn't bother the granite-chinned future hall of famer. Nope. He stunned a man who's extraordinarily difficult to hurt on more than one occasion.

Could he have stopped Shane if he poured it on? Possibly. To ask for more than what we witnessed, however, is foolish.

But the same thing can be said about Manny Pacquiao a month and a half ago. And even though Pacquiao received little credit for his dominant victory because he was in with a reluctant opponent, you can't convince me that Mosley's effort beyond the second round against Floyd was dramatically different from the one Joshua Clottey put up against Manny. While there's a number of reasons that would help explain why Floyd is getting showered with the kind of praise Pacquiao didn't taste, I think the main one is simply Shane is (deservedly) loved, and Clottey is not.

Why was the proven warrior so timid? Certainly, even a man of Shane's stature can be intimidated by an elite counter puncher. But Mosley's advanced age undoubtedly played a role. The most damning evidence of how far Mosley's removed from his prime was his uninspired attack after landing a staggering right hand to Mayweather's temple. He hurled a handful of looping head shots towards his vulnerable foe - and a single right hand to the body - before letting the remaining 40 seconds of the round harmlessly tick away. A skittish Mosley didn't unleash that many punches, but he was tired anyways, perhaps due to an unexpected rush of nervous energy and adrenaline. Mayweather went back to his corner relatively unscathed.

When there was blood in the water, prime Mosley swarmed like a school of Piranhas. We were accustomed to seeing blinding combinations in between nefarious left hooks to the liver. The closest equivalent today to a young Mosley with the scent of blood in his nostrils is, well, Manny Pacquiao.

But even a younger Mosley had front runner tendencies that helps explain his lack of fire Saturday night. Check his first fights with Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright and you'll see a long stretch of rounds that look identical to each other. That's the biggest knock on Mosley: when he becomes discouraged, he offers little resistance to the changing tide of a fight, makes few adjustments, and goes into "eff it" mode several rounds too late. His '00 megabout with Oscar De La Hoya is a notable exception. But ten years later, it's not shocking he didn't leave it on the line before finally showing some life in the closing stanza.

That's not to denigrate one of the toughest, most athletically gifted fighters of our generation in Sugar Shane. That's to say this fight wasn't incredibly useful when prognosticating what would happen between Floyd and Manny. What was reaffirmed is that Floyd is tough as hell, doesn't easily discourage, and has considerable heart to continue coming forward after getting badly stunned. What was also reaffirmed is that Floyd can get rocked by a quick-handed fighter - something that happened against DeMarcus Corley (2004) and Zab Judah (2006). Which quasi-revelation is most significant is a matter of opinion, but it's clear that Pacquiao can do several things that an aging Mosley cannot.

The apologists among Floyd's fanbase will simply chalk Pacquiao up as an imaginary victory if they never meet inside the squared circle (the numbingly grating "he would've won anyways" argument that Roy Jones apologists popularized). The fanatical among Manny's base would be equally convinced that Mayweather was just scared to lose his 0. Hopefully, for all of our sanity, Pacquiao agrees to the blood tests and the two sides agree on a reasonable split.

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