By Charlie Knoxville
I’ve been busy working long hours during Christmas time, but I always stay updated on what’s going on with boxing through various boxing sites and blogs and I noticed the influx of boxing fans sending in their articles to NowBoxing.com about how they are dissatisfied with Bob Arum and Manny Pacquiao picking Shane Mosley as their next opponent instead of Juan Manuel Marquez or Andre Berto, some are even calling for Manny Pacquiao to move up to 160-pounds and take on the champion Sergio Martinez.
You can hear the calls for boycott from agitated boxing fans who probably don’t even like Manny Pacquiao, saying how this fight is a joke, a fraud, or bad for the sport of boxing.
My response to those who are negatively shooting this fight down is….“Quit crying like a bunch of whiny babies,” Mosley vs. Pacquiao will be an exciting fight and in the end that’s what we want when we pay $50 bucks for a pay per view fight.
Let’s face it, nobody in their right mind pays to watch someone jab and move to a decision. Real fight fans expect fireworks, this is why fighters like Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti are so loved by the community because of the heart and warrior spirit they showed in the ring. Ward and Gatti don’t have the greatest record but these guys put on a show for the fans. Even if Gatti lost, he could still sell out Boardwalk Hall in New Jersey because they knew he gave it his all in the ring. Boxing is a sport of entertainment, you can respect the sweet science of it, but it is a fighters duty to make the science exciting. Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley (given the right opponent) make the sweet science exciting. Manny and Shane never back down from an exchange and both go for the knockout when they have their opponent hurt, these are not jab and move safety first boxers….they’re FIGHTERS!
The main reason these sour people don’t want to see a Pacquiao fight with Shane Mosley is because they feel Mosley is a beaten and shot fighter, they couldn’t be more wrong. Mosley doesn’t live a wild lifestyle, he stays in the gym year round, and has never been knocked out or savagely beaten to a pulp in a fight. Mosley might be past his best years, but he is still a qualified and dangerous foe for anyone who tries to mix it up with him punch for punch. Sure, he looked horrible against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sergio Mora, but before the Mayweather fight Shane was inactive for more than a year, and Sergio Mora is a running man in the ring who makes anyone look ugly. I guess people forgot that Mosley literally had to chase down Mora when they fought, how can Shane look exciting against a guy who doesn’t want to fight him back?
If these so called boxing fans really followed the sport of boxing and the history of the sport there have been many boxers who fought in their twilight years and even well past their primes to still be successful, like Archie Moore for example (look him up). The prime for a fighter back in the golden era was early to mid twenties and only a few special fighters could fight in their 30’s and up. The reason that so many fighters were shot before their 30th birthday in those days was because they fought a couple times a month with little rest and didn’t have the best diet and nutrition. Fighters today don’t fight 20-30 times in one year anymore and the diet and nutrition of an athlete today along with the scientific advances in training help an athlete continue longer. An example is Bernard Hopkins who will turn 46-years-old in January of next year, he is still highly competitive and some of his biggest wins came in his 40’s like when he beat Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright, destroyed the young Kelly Pavlik and was robbed in my eyes of a victory over Jean Pascal in Canada. Before his match with Kelly Pavlik, Hopkins was advised by his former trainer Freddie Roach and other boxing writers to retire because they felt since he lost to Joe Calzaghe he was done and Pavlik would destroy him, but Hopkins proved everyone wrong and put a schooling on the younger Kelly Pavlik handing him his first loss and many believe ruined Pavlik’s young career. So you can’t count Shane Mosley out over a few bad performances because this man is hungry and motivated to prove the skeptics wrong.
Let’s not forget, many of the old time great fighters like Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong had tune up fights or fights with guys who had more losses than wins. I think we are demanding too much of Manny Pacquiao, the man does everything he can to please the fans while having tremendous pressure put on him from his entire country and by the boxing fans to win in exciting fashion. We shouldn’t put the sport of boxing on one man’s back, just because Pacquiao is fighting Mosley doesn’t mean boxing is ripping us off, because we have plenty of excellent matches lined up for 2011 like the 140-pound title unification between two undefeated champions Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander.
Let’s give the Pacman a break, he just came off of a tough fight against a man who outweighed him by 20 pounds in Antonio Margarito, and is going into another tough fight with Mosley, and stop with this boycott stuff, you all know you will watch Pacquiao vs. Mosley on May 7th.
Happy Holidays to All!
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I am an avid fan of boxing and video games. My first fight of memory was watching Prince Naseem Hamed destroy Kevin Kelly. I enjoy all aspects of the sport. My favorite current boxer is Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. My favorite boxing match is Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo 1. I love watching boxing on Pay-Per-View more than being there live because you can really enjoy and watch the action from the best view.