Pacquiao vs. Mosley: Post-fight Review, Pictures, News & Notes

Las Vegas, NV — A hard, early knockdown from Manny Pacquiao took the fight out of Shane Mosley and rendered their WBO welterweight title match a glorified sparring session last night at the MGM Grand.

The first two rounds were spent feeling each other out. Both men were wary of each other’s power committed no more than one punch at a time. In the third, Pacquiao scored a hard knockdown off a straight left. A dazed Mosley beat the count and spent the remainder of the round frantically moving away and holding. Mosley earned Pacquiao’s respect in the fourth with some good right hands to the body and one upstairs. Although Mosley lost the round, these punches halted Pacquiao from simply overwhelming him.

Fans began to boo loudly and often during the middle rounds. The ire was directed at Mosley, who would either hold or quickly scamper away when Pacquiao attempted to initiate exchanges. The lack of action made Manny anxious; in the fifth, he visibly taunted Mosley to keep throwing after he landed a right to the body. The boos become most audible in the eighth, and Pacquiao himself seemed to lack the ferocity of his previous fights to go in for the kill.

The event picked up in the 10th when Mosley was awarded a fluke knockdown off a slip. A visibly perturbed Pacquiao showed flashes of his lower weight fury by pressing Mosley with flurry of hooks and uppercuts. Mosley, visibly swollen around his cheeks and eyes, strategically held whenever Pacquiao appeared close to scoring another knockdown.

With his career and legacy on the line, Shane Mosley still refused to offer anything but meek and token resistance in the championship rounds. Echoing Joshua Clottey’s panned performance against Manny last year, Mosley’s face showed his goal was to finish on his feet over winning. His actions resulted in more boos and “Manny! Manny!” chants from the sellout crowd at the MGM Grand. The scores reflected Mosley’s poor effort even with the knockdown; Pacquiao took the unanimous decision with scores of 120-107, 120-108 and 119-108.

Undercard Results: Mike Alvarado maintained his undefeated with a surprise corner retirement of Ray Narh. Alvarado had begun catching Narh with hard hooks for the past few rounds before Narh inexplicably quit on the grounds that he wasn’t “feeling well.” Kelly Pavlik had to work to win his comeback bout against a game Alfonso Lopez. Lopez did well early by replicating Sergio Martinez’s strategy of movement and fast combinations. Pavlik was able to slow down Lopez with body shots. The bout became an inside fight, and Pavlik was able to make a stronger impression on the judges with his superior punching. The “Fight of Night” came with Jorge Arce’s highly impressive WBO junior featherweight title win over previously unbeaten Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. Arce made it a firefight from the start by strafing Vazquez with debilitating hooks to the body. Vazquez refused to back down and found a money punch throughout the bout with the left hook, which earned him a knockdown at the end of round four. Arce badly hurt Vazquez in the 12th and landed a collection of clean punches. Vazquez punched back and refused to go down. However, his trainer/father feared for his son’s health and threw in the towel, much to the disappointment and shock of Vazquez Jr. The title is the third one for Arce.

Post-Fight Notes

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum spent a good chunk of the press conference trying to sell Pacquiao’s next opponent. The top choice is Juan Manuel Marquez, who Arum verified has recieved an offer. Arum would not disclose the weight and other deal terms. If the Marquez fight can’t be made, Arum advised the two backup opponents are Timothy Bradley and Zab Judah. When asked about Golden Boy, Arum claimed that Pacquiao will not work with them until they offer a public apologize for insinuating through Mayweather that he’s on steroids. The wily promoter also claimed, with audible sarcastic laughter from the press, that he had not been the main reason that the negotiations failed between Mayweather and Pacquiao.

Shane Mosley

He’s very fast, strong and unpredictable… Manny’s the best fighter and pound for pound king. There were shots that I seen that could’ve been sets for traps. It’s different in there. You never know what can happen.

I’ve been knocked down by Vernon Forrest; it was a strong knockdown punch. The second time is with Manny Pacquiao. It was a shot I really felt. I was pretty hurt and stunned. It didn’t seem like a big shot to me when he threw it… Manny Pacquiao has the power you have to watch out for. Usually I can go in there and punch with different guys, but he had a little something different.

I didn’t hear any boos. I was just concentrated on the fight… I’ll sit down and think about it [retirement]. Manny Pacquiao is a great fighter. Losing to Manny Pacquiao is not a big deal, he’s the Pound for Pound king for a reason.

In the sixth round I messed up my [right] foot and couldn’t move as well. I was at a disadvantage.

Naazim Richardson

What frustrated me is that we had a game plan set. It wasn’t until we got in a little trouble that we really started executing the game plan. By that time we were in defensive mode. He really couldn’t execute the way he wanted to because his foot was bothering him. It was a distraction to him the rest of the fight. He had to take advantage of the angles when Manny was going to lunge at him. But he couldn’t press down on that foot.

Manny Pacquiao

My opponent had a lot of respect for me. That’s why he didn’t want to fight toe to toe with me and that’s why he’s running for 12 rounds. I do my best. I wanted to fight toe to toe with him. I was surprised; I thought his training was to go inside and fight toe to toe. That’s part of the game. You have to push the fight if he can’t.

The first knockdown I felt I got him. I felt I was stronger than him and thought I could finish him. The next round I had a problem with my left foot. It’s tight and I’m sorry for that.

The people want exchanging punches. They want a good fight and a lot of punches. That’s what I want, but Mosley didn’t want to fight toe to toe. He’s always running from punches, just going away… I’m expecting him to fight with me at least five rounds of the 12 rounds to fight toe to toe with me so we can give a good fight and test our power and stamina. But want am I going to do if my opponent doesn’t want to fight toe to toe? It’s not my fault… My first concern is to make the people happy. I don’t care if I hurt my face; anything to make the people happy with my performance.

Conclusion: Lipstick on a pig is still a pig. This fight was a joke when it was announced. When the hype machine kicked in, some of us seemed to forget that. Mosley had no business in the ring with Pacquiao. Manny did what he could, but it was also obvious over his last few fights that Pacquiao’s begun to slow down. Mosley’s lateral movement was enough to render a lot of Manny’s shots into a lunging, clumsy offense. Don’t confuse “slowing down” with “past prime” or “shot;” a slightly diminished Pacquiao is still more than a match for anyone from 140-147 pounds not named Floyd Mayweather. And that brings us to the reason that the waste of time last night even happened. Pacquiao and Mayweather need to realize that their legacies will forever be questioned and blemished if they never fight each other. For the rest of their lives, they’ll have to hear about the other. Imagine if Ali and Frazier never fought each other? I’m not going to rehash who’s to blame. At this point it’s all old hat. At various points in their careers, Mayweather and Pacquiao have dared to be great. We’ve seen it in their battles with Diego Corrales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Jose Luis Castillo. They owe it to themselves, the sport and their fans to stop coasting against lesser opponents and meet the biggest challenge they’ll ever face.