There is currently no confirmation from either party or from Golden Boy Promotions, but AOL FanHouse's Lem Satterfield reports that "a source" has told him that a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley is likely for May 1 at a site to be determined.
Golden Boy does have May 1 lined up as an HBO or HBO PPV date, and it was thought that with that being the weekend before Cinco de Mayo, Juan Manuel Marquez would make his return. Marquez could still return on the undercard, of course, making for an expensive but very attractive show.
And if Golden Boy plans on going to PPV on May 1 (which is likely given the promoters' seemingly burning desire to once again oversaturate boxing's PPV market), Mayweather-Mosley is the sort of fight they'd need, as UFC is running that night as well.
Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer discussed this possibility eight days ago, saying at the time, "At 147 pounds, the man to beat is 'Sugar' Shane Mosley. Floyd will take that fight, and will shut up all those who are saying he's a coward."
I do want to quickly dispel one thing I keep seeing people say: Shane Mosley is not the Ring champion at welterweight. Antonio Margarito was not the Ring champion from his fight with Cotto. People just wanted both of those fights to be Ring-sanctioned. But they were not. Look, here's proof. Mosley is not Ring champion. Mayweather-Mosley would also not be for the Ring title, as they are currently ranked Nos. 2 and 3 behind Manny Pacquiao.
Anyway, whether this comes through or not, it looks like Floyd will not fight on March 13 at all. Keith Kizer of the Nevada State Athletic Commission said that date is "postponed":
"[The commission] has postponed consideration of the March 13 date by Golden Boy at the MGM just because under our policy, the commission needs to know the main event, the television situation and the site for any request for a large event," said Kizer. "For the bigger fights, the commission normally wants the situation and the event for a big fight like a Mayweather fight to be set. So the commission looks forward to having that on its next agenda once the main event has been set by Golden Boy Promotions."
Mayweather-Mosley is a fight we've all wanted to see forever -- in fact it's been a decade and some change. One thing I do worry about is history repeating itself.
You surely remember that then-welterweight champion Zab Judah had a fight lined up against Mayweather in April 2006, a major fight with a lot of people really wanting to see how it would turn out. Speed versus speed, ego versus ego. It's one of the few times that Mayweather looked like "the good guy," too.
But Judah had a January date with Carlos Baldomir, his WBC mandatory. Judah held the Ring title at the time, too, but Mayweather loves those green WBC belts, so Zab couldn't just give it up, ignore Baldomir, and move on to Floyd. Besides, Baldomir was a pushover.
Baldomir beat Judah, who went on to fight Mayweather in April anyway, but the starch was taken out of that fight. The same thing could very well happen here with Mosley fighting Andre Berto on January 30.