Mosley vs Avanesyan results: David Avanesyan retains interim belt, moves on to face Thurman-Porter winner

Shane Mosley had been promising a career resurgence, fought the best fighter he could get, and was on the doorstep of another world title shot at age 44. But that fighter he got to fight him, David Avanesyan, was just plain better than Mosley tonight in Glendale, Arizona, outpointing the former three-division champ over 12 rounds.

Avanesyan won on scores of 114-113, 117-110, and 117-110, with BLH also scoring it 117-110 for the 27-year-old Russian. Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KO) will now move on with his interim WBA welterweight title to face the winner of the June 25 fight between Keith Thurman, which is frankly not a very interesting idea.

As much as Avanesyan clearly deserved to win this fight, the story was more about what Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KO) could no longer do. Just as we've seen several times in the last six years, Mosley was jittery, unable to consistently pull the trigger, a little slow, and hit with shots that he would have avoided as a younger man. Make no mistake, the Mosley of 2007 and before would have crushed Avanesyan. Avanesyan is a solid, mid-tier fighter, a fringe contender, but he's far from special. And that was more than enough to beat the aging Mosley this evening.

This really should be the last fight of Shane's career, but we'll see. He could also do some sort of farewell fight against a lesser opponent, perhaps, but as far as chasing world title dreams, it's pretty clear that that's over, now more than ever. This wasn't Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, or Canelo Alvarez. It wasn't even Anthony Mundine, with Mosley fighting at the weight where he's always been a bit less than his best. This was a fight going in that Mosley knew if he couldn't get it done here, then it just wasn't going to happen. But will that logic stick? Who knows? It's boxing.