Pacquiao-Mosley Reflections

Last night the legendary Sugar Shane Mosley took on the Filipino superstar Manny Pacman Pacquiao.  Mosley came into the ring in tremendous shape and with incredible determination.  His trainer Naazim Richardson claimed they had solved the "Pacquiao Rubik's Cube" and that they would pull off the upset.  Fans wondered.  Pacquiao came into the ring after his best training camp ever with a plan to knock his 39-year-old antagonist out, a feat that no other fighter has ever accomplished.  Fans wondered.

Alas, neither goal came true, and it was Pacquiao's most boring fight ever.

Both fighters start out very defensively.  It's clear that Mosley's goal is to avoid getting caught with a signature Pacquiao combination, and Pacquiao's goal is to avoid Mosley's straight rights.

In the first round, both fighters do a lot of dipping and ducking.  No significant action, but Pacquiao lands more and takes the round.  He begins to open up a little in the second round, landing a few combinations.  Mosley begins to jab more in response, seeming to actually keep Pacquiao from getting inside where he wants to be.  Pacquiao takes the round again.

Pacquiao knocks Mosley down in the third round as things seems to pick up the pace.  Only having been knocked down twice before in his career, Mosley afterward ditches his aggression and begins to legitimately fear Pacquiao.  He turns into a Joshua Clottey of sorts, simply looking to survive the fight from this point on.

Mosley does, however, keep his defensive strategy close in hand, as he successfully minimizes Pacquiao's attack (Pacquiao's punch output was very low compared to other recent fights).  Even so, Pacquiao continues to outpoint Mosley for the rest of the fight, occasionally landing combinations.

In the tenth round, the two tie up.  Mosley steps on Pacquiao's foot and shoves him back.  Off-balance, Pacquiao hits the canvas.  In perhaps the worst call by a referee in championship-level prizefighting in the past year, Kenny Bayless calls it a knockdown.  Pacquiao, enraged by the ruling, proceeds to furiously go after Mosley.

Pacquiao takes the last two rounds with ease, and takes a unanimous decision victory over Shane Mosley.

Things worth noting:

• Despite the Pacquiao knockdown in the 10th, which almost certainly would have made the round a 10-8 round for Mosley, two of the judges gave Pacquiao every single round, meaning they saw Pacquiao as having won the round by two points: one to rescind the knockdown ruling (making it 10-9 Mosley), and one to win the round (making it 10-9 Pacquiao).  Very interesting judging.
• There were several significant accidental headbutts throughout the fight.  Both great sportsmen, the two fighters touched gloves after every headbutt.
• Manny claimed that in the middle rounds his legs tightened up and decreased his mobility.  Trainer Freddie Roach later called Manny's performance "gutsy" in light of this fact.
• Mosley later said he fought the best fighter in the world.  He has no immediate plans of retiring.
• Floyd Mayweather is probably going use the "knockdown" of Pacquiao as another way of degrading the Filipino superstar whom he is afraid to fight.
• Bob Arum said in the post-fight press conference that they're looking to next set Pacquiao up with Juan Manuel Marquez, Timothy Bradley, or Zab Judah.
• Though the details were slightly off, my prediction of a 12-round unanimous decision win for Manny Pacquiao was spot on.  That's right.

So it wasn't a great fight, but any Pacquiao fight automatically is going to be entertaining.  Let's hope the next one is better.

-JD