(IB – February 6. 2003) – There are many observers who are very
curious to see
how “Sugar” Shane Mosley will look in his first return to the ring since two
consecutive and disappointing losses to Vernon “The Viper” Forrest.Well, this Saturday evening, live from The Mandalay Bay Casino, Las Vegas, NV (HBO), “Sugar” Shane Mosley (38-2, 35 KOs) will step up to the jr.-middleweight division to challenge former jr.-middleweight champion Raul Marquez (34-2, 23 KOs).
On the surface, this would appear to merely be an exhibition of “Sugar” Shane regaining some much needed confidence by showcasing his speed and talent to overpower Marquez. One would have to consider this as practically a shoo-in for Mosley to be victorious and assume that he just took a very calculated risk to regain his path to stardom by selecting Marquez as his opponent.
That would then leave the boxing community asking the following questions: How good did Mosley look as a jr. middleweight? Did he appear to have any punching power at this weight class? Did he look good enough to land the re-match with Oscar De La Hoya? Could it just mean that Forrest had the perfect style and frame to give Mosley trouble, but no one else can do that?
This time Mosley will not be fighting a much taller fighter that has the skills to control the fight from the outside. Marquez is close to Mosley in height and will be right in front of Mosley trying to press the action. Marquez is riding a 4-0 win streak (against much lesser caliber opponents than Mosley), after suffering an 11th-round TKO from Fernando Vargas back in July 1997.
This fight would appear to be the perfect style to showcase the finer skills in Mosley’s arsenal, which is his ability to stick and move and beat his opponent to the punch with superb hand-speed and foot-speed.
One thing is certain. Mosley will have to focus on the task at hand and block out the distractions of what’s possibly next for him, and the outcome of the De La Hoya rematch. In this business, a fighter can only fight one fight at a time if they want to survive.
I know I’m very curious to see how “Sugar” Shane Mosley will perform. So count me in on Saturday night on HBO.
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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com