THE TSS TAKEAWAY: Readers' Cleanest, Hardest Shots Post Mosley-Mora

We try, try like the dickens, to look on the bright side. So what say we start with the positive..a few days have passed, and we havent had any installments in the Boxers Behaving Badly soap opera.

But boxers fighting badly..or in a less than fan friendly manner? Thats another matter. The reviews for Mosley-Mora were less than kind. Hate to say I told ya so. I wrote this in the prediction page piece:

((We saw, us dispassionate viewers who dont have any skin in the game, that Mosley looked his age on May 1 against Floyd. And I speak for myself, I think it is a distinct possibility that Mosley will be cursing the cake and candles, feeling every second of those 39 years on Saturday night against the 29-year-old Sergio Mora, who I expect to jab, stick, and move move move his way to a tight decision win at the Staples Center. Mora, with only six KOs in 22 wins, to go with a lone loss, to Vernon Forrest in their rematch, wont run away with it. Those who said Mosley (46-6 with 39 KOs) should hang em up when they saw how much trouble he had with Floyd didnt give Money enough credit for being a maestro. I see the rounds being tight, tough to score. Really, this ones a coin flip for me.)))

Along the same lines, it seems like the vast majority are opposed to the Hopkins-Pascal fight being on PPV. To the bright side again…Hopkins should be lauded for signing on to scrap with an in-his-physical prime hitter, as opposed to lobbying for, say, a Calzaghe rematch.

Interestingly, there wasnt a groundswell call for Mosley to hang em up. I wonder if thats because so many folks gave this one a pass. If someone else is doing a writeup, I will often, like so many of you, waffle, and waver, and ponder whether or not I should buy the PPV. I gave this fight a pass. But that wont stop me from tossing in another cents worth after you give your two cents, inn the comment section.

Read on, for the lucky 13 top comments from over the weekend on TSS.

13) The Fight Doctor: Mosley needs a REAL TRAINER if he wants to continue fighting! Richardson is a yes man picking up a paycheck. To fight Mayweather and Mora back to back without implementing a strong jab as a weapon is absurd. Mosley used to have a tremendous jab until he abandoned it for the quick KO. Golden Boy has shown no business acumen on behalf of Shane Mosley pitting him against a difficult fighter. The job of management and promotion is to set up your fighter for the best payday and the best possible style for the win. Golden Boy has been a poor choice for Mosley he should have gone with Arum or King years ago. What a waste of talent. Despite that Mosley should been given the nod, clearly landing more punches.
EM-Age age age. Its all about age. Mosley said he had pulling the trigger after the Mayweather fight, he said the same thing after this Mora bout. Have to side with you on the GB argument…bad style matchup for Shane. GB kept it in the family, another intrafraternity fight, and that benefitted them in the short run, but I dont think so in the long run.

12) The Saint: I bet Mayweather was dying to see Mosley look spectacular against Mora to make his victory over Mosley back in May be more meaningful. Of course Mayweathers Mindless Minions would credit Mayweather for how bad Mosley looked against Mora, but who cares what MMMs think? Saul Alvarez, on the other hand, is showing true promise and a real potential to become a real fighter. Hes still only 19 or 20 and has over 30 fights. Baldomir was a good measuring stick. Hes beatable but almost always gives a good account of himself, and always comes to fight, the perfect stepping stone for a very young prospect (as opposed to a multi-divisional champ who claims to be better than Ali and Robinson). What impresses me about Saul Alvarez as opposed to previous next big things that have come and gone in the last several years, is that he doesnt come across as spectacular. A lot of the hot prospects burst onto the scene with flashy KOs against jobbers. These prospects usually have explosive flurries and are hyper aggressive, fully convinced of their own hype. But once they step up in competition they get shut down, and their careers go spiraling the second they face an opponent who refuses to fall during the staredown. Alvarez is calm and poised, picks his shots, studies his opponents and doesnt try to overwhelm them from the opening bell to try to impress everyone.

11) The Saint: Blame the folks who paid to watch Hopkins vs Jones 2. If that PPV was a flop, it wasnt a big enough flop to stop the Hopkins-Pascal fiasco. Hopkins vs Pascal involves at least one live fighter not on life support, and theres always the intrigue of Hopkins dismantling a much younger foe, or Father Time catching up with Hopkins. That should make it 10x more interesting than Hopkins-Jones II. However, people should boycott this PPV. Dawson has been calling out Hopkins for a couple of years and fans have been begging Hopkins to step up to the challenge, to no avail. Then Hopkins sees in his estimation a more beatable style in Pascal and jumps on the opportunity. I hope things backfire on Hopkins in a major way.
EM-But maybe Hopkins would have challenged Dawson if Dawson had beaten Pascal? Agreed–the old dog vs young gun dynamic does at least lend some drama to the scrap. Is it PPV worthy? Not in my eyes. Maybe Ill reach out to Richard Schaefer, and ask him if he wants to defend the old dogs on PPV hes been pushing.

10) In Touch:Golden Boy has not done anything to help Mosley, not in the purest sense. He would have been better off with Bob Arum. But as far as the jab goes, I doubt if Mosley would ever be using that jab. Ive never seen him consistently use it. He has a great jab… WHEN HE USES IT. And he doesnt use it enough. NOT NEARLY ENOUGH. Mosley to me is a waste of potential. Hes a guy thats got all the skill but feels hes too tough to use those skills. As I said before this fight, hes not the smartest man in that ring when he fights. He tries too hard to show his physical strength, his ability to push people around. His bragging rights about 8 years ago was that he could squat over 400 lbs and bench 300. Sure, its impressive for a man his size. But whats the purpose? Youre not in the ring to bench press your opponent, youre there to outpunch him.

9) DaveB: I thought Mosley won the fight by a large margin. Mora did nothing except for in only a few rounds, but try to avoid contact. There was nothing but a lot of running around the ring which was not effective. He really stunk out the place by doing that. Mosley looked horrible too with his shuffling feet and that pawing jab, if you want to call it that. But Mosley did try to make a fight of it whereas Mora did not. Mora could have won the fight legitimately if he had of engaged Mosley once in a while. Every time someone does that and it is not up against the ropes Mosley freezes. There was no drama to the fight. Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley were totally bored along with Harold Lederman who all had Mosley winning by a large margin. Dave Bontempo for some strange reason had Mora winning. How people can have a guy winning that doesnt do anything is beyond me. Im afraid both Mosley and Mora will be back for title fights somewhere along the line. Mora should have made more of a statement on the big stage instead of just being happy to be there.

8) Bedbug Eddie Grant: Hopkins deserves credit as a fantastic salesman. As a fighter, hes not been enjoyable to watch for more than a dozen years. Hes an immensely safety-first, low-output feather-fisted guy that is a wily boxer. Calzaghe had him wincing and looking to quit. He beat a green and roly-poly Pavlik that was competing at an ill-advised catchweight of 170. What Hopkins will do is race-bait and create controversy in the build up to this charade, and then when he gets in the ring he employs his God-awful-to-watch style. Hopkins makes Derrick Gainer look like Jerry Quarry. Bottom line, Hopkins will snow some people into buying this thing, but I sure as hell wont be one of them. This guy is a part of the old guard that has wrecked the sport. Time for him to go, and when he does, I hope the door doesnt hit him in the a$s.
EM-Next time speak from the heart, tell us how you really feel, please.

7) Jerry: Not a great main event by any stretch but a solid undercard and three great KOs, Ill take last nights PPV over Mayweather vs Marquez, which is a solid main event and three terrible 1 sided undercard bouts. Golden Boy is the only promoter who gets it, puts on a solid top to bottom PPV instead of putting all the money into a big main event and having s–t and no names on the undercard. I thought the Marquez vs Diaz 2 entire PPV card was good and worth it as well, they have Marquez vs Katsidis coming up which is a barnburner and hopefully theyll stack the undercard like last night. Even Top Rank is using Kelley Pavlik and Mike Jones on the Pac vs Rito undercard. PPVs are far more fun when you have big names in interesting fights on the undercard, hats off to Golden Boy.
EM-Just to prove we are fair and balanced here, here was a comment from someone with a minority take…No, I will check this IP address to see if a GB employee sent this in, LOL. My take–Ill get onboard with you when the undercard bouts are pick ems. Ortiz and Canelo were both matched smart (read: they were heavy favorites against faded vets.)

6) In Touch: Hopkins was never an entertaining fighter even in his prime. He is skilled, sure, not a fan favorite. I enjoy watching talented fighters doing their thing. Little shifty moves and giving angles and rolling with the punches. But the way Hopkins fights… its to put the fans to sleep, then put his opponent to sleep (not by knocking him out, but by boring him to death). The Hopkins of current day is even more of a clutch and grab type of fighter than the Hopkins of, say, ten years ago. This fight is a pass for me. And is it good for the sports longterm growth? No! We MUST get the young bloods going. We need a young rising star. Manny Pacquiao only has a few fights left in him. After that we need a boxer to step up, to entertain and wow the crowds. Guys like Mosley and Hopkins need to call it a day.
EM-They will call it a day when the young uns force them out, violently. Mora didnt do that. Can Pascal?

5) Anony: I dont know if people notice it but the only thing impressive about Hopkins is the way he grabs and hold his opponents. So Im not willing to pay to watch him massage Pascal all night long. Sorry but Hopkins should not be asking money from us. It is time he pay us for watch him fight.
EM-The man is beyond frugal. My guess is he will not sending you a check.

4) Brownsugar: Shane always sets high (and sometimes unreasonable) expectations for himself. Otherwise why would he pick a fighter whos 10 years younger and naturally 10-15 pounds larger than himself? Moras not anything like the cement- footed Margarito who places a throw your punches here sign on his chin before every bout. Mora got legs, lots of em. Our continuous family b-day celebration nearly came to a screeching halt when the two combatants entered the ring because one of them didnt want to engage. The pineapple juice in my perfectly blended pina colada began to seperate from the coconut and rose to room temperature before I would sip from the cup again. The chorus of boos sounded like chin music being played to a broken romance. Shane reminded me more of Jake Lamotta than Sugar as he shoe-shined Moras body along the ropes. I give Shane an E for effort for digging down deep to prevent another loss on his record, but Mora could have won outright had he not been so tentative. Shane will continue to get major fights in the waning years of his career, but only as a highly decorated stepping stone like his spiritual blood-brother Holyfield. Telling himself over and over in the deep recesses of his mind, in a place that dwells next door to denial….. I can do it!

3) The Saint: Blame the folks who paid to watch Hopkins vs Jones 2. If that PPV was a flop, it wasnt a big enough flop to stop this fiasco. Hopkins vs Pascal involves at least one live fighter not on life support, and theres always the intrigue of Hopkins dismantling a much younger foe, or Father Time catching up with Hopkins. That should make it 10x more interesting than Hopkins-Jones II. However, people should boycott this PPV. Dawson has been calling out Hopkins for a couple of years and fans have been begging Hopkins to step up to the challenge to no avail. Then Hopkins sees in his estimation a more beatable style in Pascal and jumps on the opportunity. I hope things backfire on Hopkins in a major way.

2) Howard Cosell: This outcome is another farce! The most boring fight since Randall Tex Cobbs fiasco against Larry Holmes. Boring, boring, boring. Mora did not press any action so how could any judge give the fight to him? Pure highway robbery, and what about the political aspects of the nature of this bouts outcome. Mosley is a supposed Executive at GPB, Mora is just a recent signee, how in the devil does Mora receive the same clout as Mosley who is a future hall of famer? GBP shot themselves in the foot by matching up Mosley vs Mora; their greed is inexcusable. They picked up a mediocre payday in exchange for a huge payday by wasting Mosley in an ill-advised match against a slick boxer whos style made Mosley look bad….The whole promotion was utterly disgusting!…I always tell it like it is!
EM-And here I thought Mr Cosell had passed in 1995.

1) FeRoz: Shane is finished as the elite fighter we once knew. Nothing he does is even remotely close to how he fought in his glory years. He was exhausted half way through last nights fight; the gym rat in him still going through the motions to the very end. His hand speed is gone. His reflects all but shot. He is taking far too many shots. The man has dedicated his life to entertaining us in the ring. But this is a young mans game. There is only one Bernard Hopkins and even he has hit the wall. Shane has been training and fighting since before we knew him. I think I speak for all of us here when I say that I both respect and love this elegant warrior. He won that fight last night. Nevertheless, I do not want to see him fight again…and be further diminished. I wish he would stop. I know he wont. I dont think he knows how. For that, I am sorry.