Manny Pacquiao Retains Welterweight Title Against Shane Mosley in a Snoozer

Added on May 09, 2011 by Brian Blake in

Boxing

More often than not, the biggest event doesn’t become the best fight of the year. Manny Pacquiao’s 12 round unanimous decision win over Sugar Shane Mosley is no exception. While Pacquiao’s performance was good enough to retain his WBO Welterweight Championship it’s highly doubtful that it was good enough to win over any new fans.

Things seemed to be going as expected for the Filipino Congressman as he floored the future Hall of Famer in the third stanza. Mosley too was credited with a knockdown by referee Kenny Bayless, but upon further review it was clearly more of a push on Mosley’s part than a legitimate knockdown.

Other than those two moments, the fight lacked any substantial drama that fans had hoped to see when the purchased tickets or the pay-per-view telecast. Simply put, it appeared that Mosley was content to merely survive the fight and last all 12 rounds rather than step into the fire and earn a win.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, did enough to earn the nod on all three judges cards with scores of 120-107, 120-108 and 119-108 but still seemed off of his game never really being able to fully get comfortable against the Pomona native.

Following the fight Pacquiao shed a little bit of light onto what the problem might have been.

“We tried our best,’’ said Pacquiao, who is universally recognized as boxing’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer. “We both gave it our best effort. My legs tightened up during the fight. I couldn’t move. It’s the same thing that happened to me against (Juan Manuel) Marquez. It’s been happening to me more lately.

“Mosley is not slow. He’s fast and I had to be cautious of his counter-punch.’’

For Pacquiao detractors this performance did little to prove to them that Manny has what it takes to beat the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Regarding a possible fight with Floyd Mayweather, Pacman said, “For me, I don’t care about that fight. I am satisfied with everything that I have done in boxing. I want to fight because the people want the fight.’’

Just as was the case in the press junkets before the fight, Mosley had nothing but praise for his opponent.

“You can’t blame age,’’ said Mosley, who, at 39, is seven years older than Pacquiao. “Manny is an exceptional fighter. He truly is the pound-for-pound king. He has speed and power that I have never felt before.

“It’s amazing. He’s cut from my cloth so I had to box tonight.

“He surprised me with that power, with that knockdown. That’s the most legitimate knockdown on me in a long time,” admitted Mosley.

There’s no denying that Pacquiao has heavy hands, it’s just a shame he didn’t let those hands go more often.