Cornelius Bundrage Looking for Big Fights, Talks Shane Mosley

Junior middleweight titleholder Cornelius Bundrage is looking to land big fights, he says in an interview with Ryan Burton of BoxingScene.com, and thinks Shane Mosley or Carlos Molina would fit the bill. Bundrage is tired of trying to find opportunities despite the fact that he does hold the IBF belt.

"One thing about me is that I don't need these tune up fights to stay sharp. I would rather fight the big names. I want the big fights.  Bring on the top dogs. The guys that I will get credit for.  I don't want to fight guys that they don't give me credit for. I am tired of all these scaredy cats not wanting to fight."

Bundrage says he feels that at this point in his career Shane Mosley is a better fighter at 154 than he is at 147, but I think most of us would argue that Shane Mosley isn't particularly good anymore no matter what weight he's fighting at, considering his last fight at 154 was a stink-out draw with Sergio Mora where Mosley gassed and could barely land punches. Months later, Mora would lose to Bryan Vera, who for as much as many like his spirit, has never exactly had a Shane Mosley skill set or reputation.

Bundrage also says he'd rather fight Carlos Molina than Erislandy Lara, as he feels Molina beat Lara in their draw in March, which is a fair opinion held by many. Molina may wind up busy with Mike Jones later this year on a big Top Rank undercard, but he also may not.

I do get where Bundrage (31-4, 18 KO) is coming from here, but there are more factors at play. Bundrage has a belt, but isn't a big money fighter by any stretch, and he's also sat on the sidelines and fought just once since beating Cory Spinks for the IBF belt last August. On June 25, he beat Sechew Powell in a fight that should very well have been televised that night by HBO, at the very least instead of the Bermane Stiverne vs Ray Austin snoozer. That was a mistake to not televise that fight.

Rankings Chatter

But I can't quite get fully on board with his complaints about his Ring Magazine ranking (#7), either. I personally don't have Bundrage in my top ten at 154 pounds. My reasoning is simple, and not meant to "hate on" Bundrage, who I admit fully is worthy of a top ten spot in a crowded division of fighters who are roughly all on the same level. He's just not in mine, because the Spinks he beat didn't have much of anything left, and I've never thought a lot of Sechew Powell. Of Ring rankings I disagree with, Powell's fairly highly ranking by the magazine prior to losing to Bundrage is up there. Bundrage's citing of BoxRec's incredibly questionable rankings doesn't do much for me, either. BoxRec also figures that Vic Darchinyan is better than Abner Mares and that Antonio Tarver is the No. 2 cruiserweight in the world.