Shane Mosley says he's willing to fight anyone

Speaking with Robert Morales, welterweight titlist Shane Mosley is now saying he's willing to fight anyone that Golden Boy Promotions puts in front of him, but he's also not thrilled with his promoter, a company in which he is a partner.

When asked if he'd be willing to fight Paul Williams should Williams' bout with Kelly Pavlik totally collapse (which is looking more and more likely), Mosley said the following:

"At this point, I'm not even discussing who I'm going to fight. It doesn't really matter who I fight. Richard Schaefer is going to put the numbers together. Whatever makes the best sense, that's who I'm going to fight.

"I would step into the ring with anybody Richard picks. I will fight anybody at this point."

As for his feelings about the way things have shaken out in the final months of 2009, Mosley is clearly not pleased and feels slighted:

"[Golden Boy is] not getting the best fights out there. They are getting behind these fights with Mayweather fighting whoever he wants to fight and not getting behind Mayweather fighting the best fighter out there, and that is me. We have these guys promoting the 'best fights' and the best fighters are not in them.

"Nobody wants to lose to the best fighter, so they will fight the fighter underneath them and make the same amount of money, or more. The thing with me, when I had the chance to fight Berto or Margarito, I chose Margarito. I would have made the same amount of money to fight Berto. I wanted Margarito because he was the best fighter.

"That is the difference between real fighters and fighters who want to make money."

It's a bit of a bait to get fans behind him, obviously, because Mosley is looking for the most money he can find, too. He's even flat-out said he wants nothing but big fights. Oscar de la Hoya has remarked that Shane did himself no favors by waxing Margarito the way he did in January, because now nobody wants anything to do with him. Oscar has a point there. If Mosley had won but struggled or looked at all vulnerable against the man who was then considered the top welterweight in the world, he might have found a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao.

What has happened is all business. Mayweather has done this sort of thing before. He could have fought Margarito back in 2006, but instead chose to fight lineal welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir for essentially the same money. In pure boxing terms, hey, he fought the real world champion, the guy who beat the guy who beat the guy, and I don't blame him. Baldomir was a far easier matchup for Floyd than was Margarito, though I personally feel neither of them ever had a real shot at beating him.

Mosley-Mayweather has had chances to get done in the past, and the last time it came up, most blamed Mosley for the bout not happening. That is what it is. Obviously Shane wants that fight now probably more than he wanted it then, because Mayweather is a bigger star now. With Pacquiao, Mosley's luck turned against him when Miguel Cotto beat Joshua Clottey, and Bob Arum had a bigger money fight on his hands between two guys he promotes instead of sharing the pot with Golden Boy. It's simple economics, and Shane understands that.

But he's making his statements, and Shane Mosley is not a guy I'm going to accuse of ducking anyone. He can talk like this, because he'd fight these guys, and chances are he'll wind up in the ring with Clottey or Berto or someone else. He does know he needs to fight, and he looks genuinely willing to mix it up with the best opponent that can be found, which is probably Clottey. HBO, however, may make it more lucrative to fight Andre Berto, if that can be worked out between Golden Boy and Dan Goossen.

So goes "running the numbers."