The faster, surprisingly bigger and stronger Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. disposes of "Sugar" Shane Mosley with his superior boxing ability and flawless strategy. Mayweather won 10 rounds straight and was the victor by unanimous decision in HBO PPV's biggest non-title fight of the year.
Mayweather spared no expense in making this fight a spectacle. Even though it was disgusting to see and hear Chris Brown, the R&B singer who physical abused female R&B star Rhianna, sing the national anthem, Mayweather's entrance seemed like a scene from Rocky IV with classic soul R&B group, the O'Jays , singing "For The Love of Money" in the middle of the ring. During Mayweather's Apollo Creed-like entrance, Mosely seemed nervous and tight like Drago.
Just like in Rocky IV, Mayweather's speed was getting the best of Drago, I mean Mosely, in the first round. After Mosely's nerves settled in the second round, he banged Mayweather right on the "money" with a huge right cross. Mayweather's knees buckled and Mosely continued to hit him with a flurry of punches while the jam-packed crowd in the MGM Grand stood in awe of the first possible knockout in Mayweather's career. The crowd is on their feet rabidly expressing their allegiance chanting, "Mosely! Mosely! Mosely!" But it wasn't enough to motivate him to maintain the pressure and Mayweather withstood the onslaught and survived the round.
Then the domination began. From round three to 12 Mayweather dominated with punching precision and strategy winning the rest of the rounds. By round six, Mosely seem gassed, outclassed and confused unable to get inside of Mayweather's straight punches and unable to penetrate his rock solid defense.
Mosely's frustration resulted to clinching and wrestling throughout the remainder of fight. His trainer, Nazim Richardson, begged him to let his hands go and follow the game plan. Richardson, in desperation, made Mosely recite the game plan out loud in the corner at end of round nine. However, Mayweather quickly shut him up and continued his dominance for the next three rounds to win the fight.
Mayweather is now 41-0; and Mosley has been beaten for the second time in his last four fights and is 46-6 contemplating retirement.
The two shook hands and hugged after the fight with Mayweather saying to Mosley, "You're a tough MF'er." And Mosely saying, "You're a great champion."
Mayweather said he wants to fight top welterweight Manny Pacquiao... if he submits to an Olympic style drug test, which consists of seven random blood and urinalysis examinations for performance enhancing drugs and costs more than $20,000 to conduct.
The ball is definitely in Pacquiao's court. Mayweather just fought and dominated the last credible known welterweight in the division. Yes, Andre Berto is an undefeated top contender but he's not a big money draw. Migel Cotto is a money draw but has lost two of his last four fights against Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito (who Mosley destroyed in his last fight).
Considering the way Mayweather performed in this fight, one may have reservations that Pacquiao can even stand a chance against him.
Pacquiao would be the smaller and slower man who charges straight forward. That is tailor-made for Mayweather. Freddy Roach is a superb trainer, but Mayweather has superior trainers, his uncle Roger Mayweather and his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. He also has the best cutman in the business, the legendary Joe Chavez. However, Chavez has been known to jump ship to the highest bidder. Before the Pacquiao and Cotto fight, Chavez ditched Cotto to work in Pacquiao's corner.
Speaking of Cotto, in the undercard, Jose Cotto (31-2-1), Migel's older brother, was beaten by 19-year-old prospect "Camelo" Saul Alvarez (32-0-1 with 23 KOs) by TKO in less than 10 seconds left in the ninth round.
Earlier in the night, southpaw Daniel Ponce De Leon, a former Mexican Olympian, out punched Cornelius Lock, a former U.S. amateur champion from Detroit, with devastating jabs to win a unanimous decision in a 10-round featherweight bout.
In a strange welterweight bout that lasted less two minutes, Said Quali (27-3, 19 KOs), a 29-year-old Moroccan fighter out of Las Vegas, came off the canvas to knock out once-beaten Hector Saldivia (31-1 with 24 KOs) of Argentina.
Mayweather is guaranteed a minimum of $22.5 million while Mosley is guaranteed a minimum pay of $7 million. Those numbers do not include the Pay-Per-View buy profits, so their respective payday's will increase and Mayweather could possibly wind up with $40 million or more.