Shane Mosley "90% Sure" He's Fighting Manny Pacquiao

Though it's far from saying anything is set in stone, Sugar Shane Mosley is supremely confident that he's going to be fighting Manny Pacquiao next. On his Twitter account, Mosley posted the following:

alright tweet buddies, I am going to get me some rest. Talk with Ya'll later. But get ready for Sugar and Pac it's going down!!!!!!

After being questioned as to whether or not Bob Arum would agree with his statement, Mosley posted this:

I just left his office yesterday 90% sure Its going down trust

It's looking more and more like Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 KO) and Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KO) will be facing off in 2011. It's just an awful fight, to be frank. I suspect if they do it, Top Rank will focus on Mosley's Hall of Fame-bound status and the fact that he's a great guy, because there's not much good to say about what happened in the ring with him this year. He hurt Floyd Mayweather Jr. in round two of their May fight, then lost the next ten rounds while being increasingly worn out and discouraged. In September, he came back and had a flat-out awful "fight" with Sergio Mora, which wound up being ruled a draw. Pacquiao has dominated Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito this year.

The reason this will happen, if it does, is that Mosley is still one of the biggest stars in American boxing. But don't expect Pacquiao to be immune from criticism, and very legitimate criticism at that. If the idea is to dispel those rumors that Manny doesn't fight slick black Americans, Mosley is not the answer. He's not slick by any stretch of the imagination anymore. As he has aged, he's become a brawler. And he turned 39 in September, and fought his age twice this year. Fighters tend to get old pretty fast, and the process doesn't reverse itself very often.

In 2009, this would have been a great fight. In 2011, it's a rotten fight, and there is absolutely no getting around it. Sugar Shane is just not the same fighter he once was, and Manny proves nothing with a fight that basically amounts to mop-up duty on a great fighter's faded career.