During a conference call to promote his upcoming mega-fight, Floyd Mayweather Jr. spoke about the differences between himself and his opponent, WBA welterweight champion Shane Mosley. In doing so, he brought up some extremely valid points regarding their styles that will likely play a major role in the outcome of the fight. "I think we're totally different. I think he's a fighter that always worries about landing one big shot and he worries about who's extremely strong and I worry about being smart and winning," he would point out, a fact that has become more and more evident as Mosley's career has progressed.
Once a lightning fast puncher who put together accurate combinations, Mosley has, on more than one occasion, fallen into a pattern of stalking his opponents looking to land that one solid right hand. Although that was less obvious in his last fight, largely due to the fact that Margarito stood right in front of him, it's much more apparent in his bouts with Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Mayorga, two fights with different outcomes, but two fights that saw a frustrated Mosley loading up with his right hand as he tried desparately to corner his opponent. His jab has become irrevelant, more of a flicking range-finder as he looks to find a home for that right hand, another major difference that Mayweather makes note of.
"We approach fights two total different ways, always. I mean, I think Shane's main thing is loading up with wide shots and kinda using not really a forward jab; and I use a forward jab," he continued, "and, you know, when I shoot my shots, I look at, you know, I look at my opponents and I look where I'm punching at. You know, when Shane's punching, a lot of times, he closes his eyes if you go back and look at some of his fights. So I think we two total different fighters." Again, Mayweather does indeed bring up some extremely valid points, which anyone can confirm just by watching some of Mosley's recent fights. The question is, will any of that even matter on May 1.
Naturally, Floyd Mayweather thinks it will. He also thinks that they're already winning the mental war. Having already claimed that Shane Mosley has been acting of character with his recent trash talk, Mayweather also believes his trainer, Naazim Richardson, has fallen victim to their mind games. "Shane's trainer said he wasn't going to get into a debate, you know, a back and forth debate. But once again, we baited him in, so he's going back and forth, you know, and that's something that he said he wasn't going to do. He wasn't going to be trash talking, he wasn't going to go back and forth, he wasn't going to get baited into doing that," he added. "I guess we up one because we baited him in to, you know, to talking trash and he said that's something that he wouldn't do. He said he wouldn't stoop that low. Well obviously it's not that low if he stooped to that level."
With less than 9 days to go, it's clear that the battle has already begun outside of the ring. It'll be interesting to see if any of the factors that Mayweather brought up will play a role when the two fighters step inside the ring on May 1.