Paulus has become Namibia's biggest sports star with a single victory.

View full size photo »

Various boxing news from around the globe...

• Sugar Shane Mosley might finally be moving on with his life.  He's given up on trying to get a Pacquiao fight, which was destined to fail the second that Miguel Cotto looked vulnerable against Joshua Clottey, and is now targeting his sights on Paul Williams, Joshua Clottey, Kermit Cintron or Andre Berto.  He still seems destined to fight Williams to me, if Mosley is up to the task.  Clottey is coming off a loss and doesn't let anyone look good, so he's not ideal.  Cintron seems to have good things lined up at 154 and would get destroyed by Mosley, so he's probably not going to want to take that fight unless really big money is involved.  Berto, frankly, is still being protected, and I doubt that Lou DiBella will let him take the next step.  That leaves Mosley-Williams, which is the biggest money fight available for either of them.  It could be a war.  Negotiating the weight might be tricky on that one though.  Williams has looked better north of 147 and probably would have trouble cutting to the weight at this point, while Mosley looks sluggish at 154. 
• According to a tweet from Namibia Sport, Paulus Moses will be having the first voluntary defense of his lightweight title in Windhoek against Takehiro Shimada, a recent Edwin Valero victim.  Originally he was going to face Verquan Kimbrough, so it's not like this is a big step down for a late replacement.  Namibia's an interesting case.  Harry Simon retired as an undefeated champ, and since then, boxing has been one of the biggest (if not the biggest) sports in Namibia.  The country itself isn't very populous, but it just goes to show that all you need is the right thing to happen for the sport to take off somewhere.   
• Sauerland, promoter of Arthur Abraham and Nicolai Valuev, is negotiating to take over the promotional rights to Mikkel Kessler from Mogens Palle.  If this goes through, we probably won't see a huge step up in competition, but at least his fights will become more accessible.  No word on whether this is a stumbling block on the proposed super middleweight tournament, but I suspect that Kessler can't enter into any contract until this situation gets resolved.
• Manny Pacquiao and Kobe Bryant will be doing an ad campaign together.  I hope someone remembered to bring the stepladder. 
• In what's becoming a trend, Aussie Rules Football player Barry Hall has quit from football due to anger management issues and is considering taking up pro boxing.  Anthony Mundine was a former pro rugby player and has become a major draw in Australia.  Sonny Bill Williams also recently quit rugby in favor of boxing, winning his pro debut on the Mundine-Geale undercard.  Danny Green, who's fighting for the IBO cruiserweight belt on the Roy Jones-Jeff Lacy undercard, has indicated that he's willing to take Hall under his wing.