Shane Mosley's Next Fight: Veteran Won't Fight Amir Khan at 145, Says He'll Knock Out Canelo Alvarez

With Shane Mosley's name unfortunately back in the news for potential major fights -- including a rumored bout with Amir Khan, a rumored bout with Canelo Alvarez, and Robert Guerrero trying to stick his nose in, too -- ESPN.com's Dan Rafael caught up with the 40-year-old Mosley and got his thoughts on what's going on with all this mess.

Mosley says that Golden Boy first contracted him about Alvarez, the WBC junior middleweight titlist, to which he was receptive, and then asked about his interest in fighting Amir Khan -- at 145-pound catchweight.

"I said, 'No way at 145.' I might do it if it was at 147. I was thinking 149 or 150," Mosley said. "It's possible, but I would want to be sure everything is right. It's interesting, but it depends on the setting, the weight, what type of money."

For the life of me, I have no idea why Mosley would possibly think that Amir Khan, who has never fought over 140, would meet him at a 149/150-pound catchweight, especially considering Mosley's last fight was at 147, but then I think Shane Mosley probably sees himself as, like, a desired star in these talks, rather than the realistic angle: He's a desired has-been.

Khan vs Mosley at 147 hasn't garnered much support that I can tell, but some are for some reason into the idea of Mosley facing Alvarez at 154, despite the fact that he's always been a lesser fighter at 154, even back when he was in or at least much closer to his prime.

"I'm better than anyone Canelo [has] fought," Mosley said. "By all means, put me in with him and let me knock him out. To me, Canelo is a warm-up for me to another fight. We can definitely do that."

I know it would be nice to think that Mosley is better than anyone Canelo has fought, and maybe he is still, but then again, you know, maybe not. Mosley is blaming his last fight, a loss to Manny Pacquiao, on an injured Achilles' tendon in his left foot suffered weeks before the fight.

But that doesn't explain his awful outing in September 2010 against Sergio Mora, a fight where Mosley couldn't pull the trigger enough to beat a guy who would go on to lose to limited brawler Brian Vera in his next outing. That was Mosley's last fight at 154, and he looked extremely old, and gassed out halfway into the fight.

I don't know why anyone thinks that Mosley will be able to pull the trigger against Alvarez any more than he was against Pacquiao, Mora, or Mayweather. It has now been three years -- three years -- since Mosley last looked good in a boxing ring. I'm sorry, but that's just legitimate analysis: I don't know that Shane Mosley is really any better than Kermit Cintron or Matthew Hatton or Ryan Rhodes or Lovemore N'dou anymore. The instinct is to say that he is, because he's Shane Mosley by name, but name has nothing to do with what's really left.