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Manny Pacquiao Dominates Shane Mosley With Ease, Vegas Crowd Voices Disappointment

Shane Mosley wasn't even close tonight in his loss to Manny Pacquiao. And the fans in the arena booed loudly and frequently. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
Shane Mosley wasn't even close tonight in his loss to Manny Pacquiao. And the fans in the arena booed loudly and frequently. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
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Manny Pacquiao dominated a clearly too old "Sugar" Shane Mosley tonight at the MGM Grand, winning a routine and at times quite dull 12-round unanimous decision. Official scores were 120-107, 120-108 and 119-108. Bad Left Hook scored the fight 119-109 for Pacquiao.

Mosley was put down hard in the third round, but came off the canvas. Shane only had moments of any real offense, mostly finding himself totally unable to pull the trigger against the obviously faster and even stronger fighter. In the middle rounds and on, Mosley was out of gas for the third fight in a row, and wound up basically surviving the fight. Kenny Bayless did call a knockdown of Pacquiao in the 10th round, but it was obviously a shove from Mosley, and just a rare bad call from the usually excellent Bayless.

Pacquiao landed 182 of 552 total punches, compared to Mosley's 82 of 260. It was a total domination.

The real story of the fight was the crowd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which loudly voiced their disappointment with and disapproval of the fight. It is rare that a Pacquiao fight is booed. This one was booed. Frequently. Repeatedly. Loudly. And legitimately.

And to tell the truth, the fight deserved it. After the fight, Pacquiao said his legs tightened up on him, but Manny was not the issue tonight. Early he was respectful of Mosley. But eventually he did appear just a bit off, even while dominating.

Mosley, on the other hand, was toast and it was clear from the third round on. The first round was close, and I gave Mosley a round later in the fight that Pacquiao coasted through in some respects.

Let me make this clear: Shane Mosley is 39 years old and needs to retire. There is nothing more for this once-great fighter, a very proud man, to accomplish in boxing. After the fight, Mosley was completely in denial about his performance, and still claimed that he can "get in with younger guys and do (his) thing." He quite obviously cannot. He's 0-2-1 in his last three, and while two of those fights came against the two best in boxing, he wasn't close against either of them.

But when asked of retirement, Mosley said, "I really don't know." As a Mosley fan, I hope that he decides that he's done enough, because he definitely has.

As for Manny Pacquiao, I just hope that sooner rather than later, the fight we all want changes from unfortunate dream to reality. When asked about Mayweather after the fight, Manny danced around the subject like never before, but said he wants the fight because the people want it.

Yes we do. And 16,000 plus in the MGM Grand tonight might have tried to make clear that these fights are no longer acceptable.

We'll have more coming on what's next for Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley. Thank you for joining us tonight and all week.

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