Antonio Margarito Vs. Sugar Shane In January

By David A. Avila

BEVERLY HILLS-Alongside the swimming pool at the plush Beverly Hills Hotel, the top administrators of Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions met on Monday afternoon to discuss a few upcoming events on the horizon and to drop one new bombshell: WBA welterweight titleholder Antonio Margarito will be meeting Sugar Shane Mosley early next year.



“We just have to work out the numbers with HBO,” said Top Rank’s Bob Arum.



Richard Schaefer, CEO for Golden Boy, said he would be calling HBO to find a date, probably a week before the Super Bowl on Jan. 31.





Ever since Mexico’s Margarito defeated Miguel Cotto it’s been Pomona’s Mosley who has asked the loudest to meet with the Tijuana Tornado. He’s one of only a few prizefighters eager to meet the hardnosed welterweight.



After Mosley knocked out Nicaragua’s Ricardo Mayorga with seconds remaining in the 12-round fight more than a week ago, he disappointedly told reporters that his quest to meet the feared Mexican fighter seemed like a lost cause.



“They have other plans for Margarito,” Mosley said at the Home Depot Center.



But Top Rank and Golden Boy, who have embarked on a few joint ventures and have several more coming up such as Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins in Atlantic City in a few weeks, were able to work terms for the two welterweights to engage in a high profile match.



Previous discussions had involved Margarito facing either Joshua Clottey or Miguel Cotto early next year. But now it will be Mosley, who is considered an elite fighter and more recognizable than Clottey and able to garner bigger pay-per-view numbers on a show of this magnitude.



What happens to Clottey and Cotto?



Arum said that plans are underway to negotiate a match between IBF titleholder Clottey and another feared boxer, WBO titleholder Paul Williams, in a unification contest.



The winner between Mosley and Margarito will probably face Cotto in June, said Arum.


Margarito was present at Pechanga Resort and Casino to see his buddy Alfredo “Perro” Angulo defeat Russia’s Andrey Tsurkan. He’ll probably begin training in November for his showdown with Mosley.



Mosley will also begin preparation probably in November too. He will be training a couple of blocks from Oscar De La Hoya’s training site. Maybe they’ll be sparring together?

This should be a good win on Margarito's resume despite Mosley's decline.

exactly nice name but does nothing for margs! Cotto already beat shane and shane proved in his last fight his way past his prime

Purely money fight for Margarito.

Mosley will be competitive but the late rounds will get ugly.

I wonder what his game plan will be. I hope his last fight was just a bad night for him cause if not it has the potential to get ugly.

I agree w/ MMM. The later rounds could be very ugly for Shane. I don't like this fight one bit for him. I don't see him getting the victory and thus, just tarnishing his legacy. Although if he does take the fight you gotta give him credit for having a set of balls and not ducking anybody.

To be honest, Shane doesn't have much of a legacy to stand on in my opinion. He is bordering on Zab Judah's turf as super-gifted but unable to win.
He has 2 wins of record. Both of them over DLH. The 2nd of those fights should have gone to DLH.
I don't really give much credit for his wins over Vargas because of where Vargas was in his career (at the end).
Mayorga? Not really. He's retired more times than he's fought in the last 2 years, and is pretty much a payday whore because of his mouth and exciting style.

4 losses to Vernon & Winky, and one to Cotto. When he gets in against the best, he comes up short. I don't care that "he had Cotto in the 12th if the mat wasn't so spongy," he lost.
Pretty much his entire legacy is pinging on him being the first guy to give DLH a loss. I don't see what else he's really accomplished.
If he fights Margarito, I see Shane having some modest success early on, but getting worn down and run over.
He might survive because of his iron chin...but if Tony connects, expect Shane to play jab'n'grab all night with the occasional wild overhand right thrown with a prayer for a knockout.

You make some excellent points. For some reason it does go unnoticed and he isn't mentioned with the likes of DLH and Judah who seem to fall short in big fights. Always goes under the radar.

Great points. His main claim to fame is beating DLH twice and being a multi-division champ IMO. But yep his biggest fights he lost excluding DLH. What really makes him stand out is his out of the ring personality and his eagerness to fight the best, his chin, and the fact he doesn't duck anyone. So with Shane its more than what he has done in the ring, its just him all around.

It would be a good fight, but Margarito is in his prime and Mosley is not. Margarito probably wins via clear UD with Mosley giving a good acccount of himself int he early and mid rounds before fading.

Huge fan of Mosley, but I believe he's getting too much credit in any possible matchup with AM. This fight won't be a UD, SD or MD. Mosley will lose by TKO, KO. ........ Sadly!!

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QUOTE(buford54 @ Oct 10 2008, 12:18 PM)
To be honest, Shane doesn't have much of a legacy to stand on in my opinion. He is bordering on Zab Judah's turf as super-gifted but unable to win.
He has 2 wins of record. Both of them over DLH. The 2nd of those fights should have gone to DLH.
I don't really give much credit for his wins over Vargas because of where Vargas was in his career (at the end).
Mayorga? Not really. He's retired more times than he's fought in the last 2 years, and is pretty much a payday whore because of his mouth and exciting style.

4 losses to Vernon & Winky, and one to Cotto. When he gets in against the best, he comes up short. I don't care that "he had Cotto in the 12th if the mat wasn't so spongy," he lost.
Pretty much his entire legacy is pinging on him being the first guy to give DLH a loss. I don't see what else he's really accomplished.
If he fights Margarito, I see Shane having some modest success early on, but getting worn down and run over.
He might survive because of his iron chin...but if Tony connects, expect Shane to play jab'n'grab all night with the occasional wild overhand right thrown with a prayer for a knockout.
***

Excellent Points buford54,

In reference to your last point - Mosley doesn't have the size or strength to "jab'n'grab" with AM all night or any amount of time that would be a positive. He will get "Run Over" and pulverized into an UGLY retirement.

This is a good fight to fill the bank accounts for Mosley - But a very ugly way to end your career.

I think it will be a competitive fight for a few rounds but Shane will end up in survival mode big time in order to last the distance. I do believe Shane has the speed and the chin to go 12 with Tony, but this is an extremely difficult task for him at this stage of his career.

Buford, you make some OK points but you can do the same thing with any fighter's career: Oscar? Who did he beat? Chavez and Pea? I give him no credit for that. He should have lost to Quartey. He lost to every other big name fighter he faced. I give him credit for fighting the best but it was always on his terms; Trinidad? What were his major accomplishments? 15 defenses at welterweight? Sure, but against who? Beating Oscar? Please, that was a gift. Ruining a pair of raw, overhyped US olympians? Big deal, those guys were overhyped to begin with. I give him very little credit for those wins. Hopkins? What did he really do? Hid at middleweight during his prime while allowing his serious competition to climb weight in search of bigger challenges. Beat up two undersized welterweights jumping up for a payday? Big deal. Beating up overhyped, sunday punch Tarver? Who cares about that? Roy? Please. This man avoided all challenges throughout his career then got stretched the minute he finally was goaded into facing a big puncher. His career is smoke and mirrors. Speaking of smoke and mirrors, Floyd? What's he done that was so special? Two good wins against Corrales and Castillo, but Corrales was distracted because he had already been sentenced to jail and Floyd got a gift in the first Castillo fight. Moved up in weight and fought a bunch of tomato cans. Barely even earned an SD against an old, slow Oscar who didn't even have his trainer for the fight. Pacquiao? What's he done? Two gifts against Marquez. Sure he beat up Barrera and Morales but they were shot by the time he got to them. I give him no credit for those wins.

See? And the thing is, I don't think I made up a single thing in this ramble. Every word of it's been said at various times by various posters here trying to downgrade a fighter they don't care for and advance their own worthless agenda as a boxing fan.

So who do you have mind as the current best in the world since they all seem to be paper champions?.............

That was my point. I wasn't giving an actual opinion, just saying you can always find ways to disparage a guy to suit your agenda.

IMO too much gets made here in some debates over 'who did he beat?' or 'he's only done so and so in big fights', etc.. Body of work counts too and I think some posters tend to overlook that. Especially in boxing, where we all know anything can happen in any one given fight. Guys like Oscar, Tito, Shane, Hopkins, Mayweather, etc. are rightfully considered the best because of what they've done over time, not just what they did in fights HBO decided to put on PPV.

Big Slim you make some great points. You will notice that about 90% of all the posts in these forums are negative is some way. I guess that is todays attitude. Its not cool to show respect. Its cooler to disrespect. You are exactly right when you said "Guys like Oscar, Tito, Shane, Hopkins, Mayweather, etc. are rightfully considered the best because of what they've done over time, not just what they did in fights HBO decided to put on PPV". Mosley may not go down in history as the greatest fighter in the world but they should give him some credit. He fought Forrest when nobody else wanted him. He fought Winky when nobody else would. The guy has stepped up and fought the best out there. Last time I checked there werent to many fights in the IBHOF undefeated. Some fighters are there because they werent afraid to risk it all by fighting the best out there win or lose.

If I was a betting man I'd put $2 on Shane!!!
Give me the upset.

At this stage I gott go with Tony! Mosley's heart will be his downfall