Shane Mosley reportedly targeting Paulie Malignaggi fight

Following a loss to WBC junior middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez this year, Shane Mosley announced his retirement. Given a couple of weeks, it seemed like almost nobody really believed it would stick, as Mosley has been interviewed by several outlets, and basically every time, he has been noncommittal when asked if he was really retired, or if he would come back.

Today, the rumors are stronger than ever, as Fight Hype is reporting that the 41-year-old Mosley is hoping to land a fight with WBA welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi.

According to one source, Mosley was unimpressed with the recent performance of WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who survived a late knockdown to score a razor-thin split decision victory over Pablo Cesar Cano. "Shane knows he still has enough in the tank to beat a champion like Paulie, so that's who he's gunning for," the source explained.

Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KO) was completely dominated by Alvarez in May, offering almost no resistance beyond the fact that he's still got a remarkably strong chin.

The problem here is that Mosley is flat-out shot in the ring, at least in my view. He hasn't had a good full-fight performance since the Margarito bout in January 2009. That was four years ago at this point. Before that, he hadn't looked good since a 2007 loss to Miguel Cotto. After being thoroughly outclassed in 2010 by Floyd Mayweather, he has just looked worse each time out.

But this is a fight that could certainly happen if the rumors are true. Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO) didn't look very good in October against Pablo Cesar Cano, and his beatdown earlier this year of Vyacheslav Senchenko gets lost in that now, since we're all very, "what have you done for me lately?" But Paulie's always been an unpredictable fighter; some nights he's on point, some nights he's off, and it's hard to tell when it will happen, and often why it happens.

With Ricky Hatton's loss and retirement last week, Malignaggi and Golden Boy lost a big fight they were hoping to make -- though Richard Schaefer, in his gross desperation, pushed for it after the fight anyway). Given promoter shamelessness, it would hardly be a surprise to see Malignaggi face Mosley. And given that Malignaggi is also being called out by Dmitriy Salita and Paul Spadafora, Mosley is almost desirable, comparably. Another option mentioned last weekend by Lance Pugmire of the LA Times, is a rematch with Amir Khan. Of the group, I'd say that's the best fight, and I'm not sure how much demand there is to see that again, either.