via www.hbo.com
I had nothing more accurate or better for the headline of this. A little sophomoric? Perhaps, and certainly not the most appealing. But it's the truth. Shane Mosley beat the living crap out of Antonio Margarito in front of a record crowd at the Staples Center, and knocked him out in the ninth round.
My card had Mosley winning every round, except for the seventh, and in the eighth, he floored Margarito late. The fight could've been stopped -- a fight less important than this one might have been. But Raul Caiz, Sr., let Margarito continue, and he went to his corner dazed. Early in the ninth, with Mosley pouncing, Margarito went down as Caiz jumped in, just after Margarito's corner had thrown in the towel.
No one picked Shane Mosley to win this fight by knockout. He was a live dog, because he's a great fighter. And some picked him to win. But by knockout? Unreal. Absolutely unreal.
The other major note from tonight: Mosley's new trainer, Nazim Richardson, was in the Margarito dressing room prior to the fight and noticed an illegal substance in his gloves, something said to be wet and hardening. A plaster substance is what I'd suspect. That is huge news, and it's ugly news. They've got a lot to explain in the Margarito corner on that one. His hands were re-wrapped three times.
The story of the night is Shane Mosley, again a welterweight titlist at age 37, and with a dominating performance, one of the very best of his career. We will have much, much more tomorrow, including future opponents for each man, and the fallout of the fight. Hopefully we'll get a further explanation of the Margarito controversy, too.
Final note: the sellout crowd at the Staples Center was not just a boxing record for the arena, but a record, period, at 20,820.