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Confirming great fears from many boxing fans and totally thwarting their defense that Golden Boy makes only the best fights, Oscar De La Hoya tweets tonight that a May 5 fight between Canelo Alvarez and Shane Mosley is a done deal, and will be featured on the Mayweather vs Cotto undercard.
Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO) is the 21-year-old WBC junior middleweight titlist, and coming off of an easy breakdown of Kermit Cintron, who like Mosley is well past his best, and made for a predictable TKO loss.
But unlike Cintron, Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO) is 40 years old, doesn't look good in the ring or sound good outside of it, and even though boxing fans and too many in the media have very short memories, the fact is he's been absolutely awful for his last three fights, and hasn't won in over three years now.
Mosley was last seen in May 2011, of course, losing a stinker of a fight to Manny Pacquiao, a fight that was largely rejected by boxing fans when it was signed. The next morning, I said this about Mosley:
It pains me to "trash" Shane Mosley, but we have to be honest about who he is. If anyone ever tries to sell you another Shane Mosley fight with the speed that we know he doesn't have and the trigger we know he can't pull, hey, watch it if you want to, but expect nothing.
That fight followed Mosley's lousy performance against a mediocre Sergio Mora in September 2010, and Mosley's one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr in May 2010. Even if you want to focus on Mosley rocking Mayweather in round two, that was not the story of the fight. The story of the fight came in the next ten rounds, when Mosley was completely lost in the ring against Mayweather, and couldn't do anything.
And because he mauled a punchless Antonio Margarito in January 2009 -- three years ago -- it's easy to forget that Mosley was not impressive against Ricardo Mayorga in his fight before that one, giving away rounds because he couldn't seem to keep focus in the corner. In many rounds, he seemed totally absent.
This is a lousy fight. If you think it's going to be competitive, remember that and remind me on May 6. Because I will guarantee this amounts to a young fighter beating whatever little bit is left out of a fighter who has shown that he's long past it. If you're waiting for Mosley's "one more run," I guess you're waiting for Roy Jones' run, or James Toney's run, or Nate Campbell's run. Mosley had his "one more" -- it was the Margarito fight. Three years ago.
Unfortunately, we'll have to sit through Mosley once again showing us a shadow of the fighter who people remember, and still want to believe exists.