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Pros and Cons: Mosley vs Mayorga II

Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga meet again on Saturday in a rematch no one really asked to see. Should you buy the PPV?

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Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

This Saturday night from The Forum in Inglewood, California, "Sugar" Shane Mosley meets Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga in a rematch of a 2008 bout that is memorable only for its final few seconds.

Normally a fight like this -- two aging, shot fighters who are shadows of what we will remember them being -- wouldn't stir up much talk. But Mosley, 43, has become something of a Twitter star this year, and Mayorga, 41, is always able to stir up at least a little talk, even for club fights and ridiculous attempts at mixed martial arts.

Is there any good reason to watch this fight on Saturday? Let's break it down.

Pros

  • There is a decent chance that this fight will be entertaining. These are guys fighting for a payday and the hope of getting another one, however delusional that may be.
  • If ever there were a time for an in-ring riot, it's Mosley-Mayorga II. Something about all of this feels kinda WWE-ish, so screw it, have Fan Man Jr fly in and do a big pull-apart brawl in round eight. Any longer and everyone might be too tired. Idea: have both fighters take shots of tequila between rounds. The fight can be won by all the normal boxing ways to win, OR by the first man to make his opponent vomit three (3) times. Knowing boxing, there would be a controversial vomit call by the referee on a dry heave and a spit.
  • You probably like boxing. You're reading this right now. This is a boxing event, which means at least part of you is interested.

Cons

  • There is a pretty good chance that this fight will suck. Mosley has had a lot of trouble pulling the trigger in recent fights, though he looked decent against Pablo Cesar Cano in May 2013, which is the last time Mosley won a fight, and the only time he's done so since 2009. One fight out of the last six with Mosley able to get shots off isn't a great bet for this to be fun.
  • Mayorga is really pretty bad. I mean, he was never good, necessarily, but he was ballsy, ultra tough, and a strong puncher. Years of being ultra tough have taken a toll. He still talks the talk, but when it gets down to it, he hasn't walked the walk in a long time.
  • This show is going up against a much more meaningful (and free) fight on ESPN between Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares. If you're someone wondering about boxing, you used to be a fan but haven't been for a while, but you know the names "Mosley" and "Mayorga," sure, order this if you want, but know that there's a much better and more significant fight on ESPN at the same time.
  • It's a pay-per-view. The complaint that it's a pay-per-view is silly. "This should be on some crappy TV channel!" you might say. Yeah, well, no crappy TV channel wants to air this fight. Which says a lot about what this fight is.
  • Both fighters are frankly irrelevant at this stage of their careers. There are no real professional stakes in this fight, though the winner could find himself set up to get crushed by someone younger. So that's something, I guess.
  • Their first fight wasn't actually any good. Mosley looked mentally distracted for much of the fight, and an already severely declining Mayorga gave him a lot more trouble than he should have. Mosley's last second knockout, accompanied by Larry Merchant's "Shane Mosley, I love you!" call are memorable enough, but they erase what had been a fairly dull and frustrating 11-plus rounds before. And that was seven years ago, when both guys were a lot better than they are now, and had much more to fight for, too.

So are you going to buy this fight, or are you going to, you know, be a normal person who values the fact that life is short and precious and every second lived is one you can't get back, and not order this fight?

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