Mosley can exit in style after beating Mayorga

September 25, 10:29 AMSF Boxing ExaminerColin Seymour

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I expect to enjoy watching Shane Mosley thrash Ricardo Mayorga on Saturday night (Sept. 27) on HBO, the way I enjoyed seeing Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya thrash Mayorga in recent years. And then I wish Sugar Shane would retire, as Trinidad should have after he beat Mayorga.

Boxing must be the only sport in which retiring before the inevitable decline sets in is desirable, and Mosley sugarshanemosley.com isn’t the only current great who should be planning an exit strategy. Muhammad Ali should have quit after the Thrilla in Manila. Etcetera, etcetera.  Too many stay in it too long, and that probably means you, Roy Jones Jr., Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver, as you go up against Joe Calzaghe, Kelly Pavlik and Chad Dawson. If you lose, please exit while you’re still intact. Evander Holyfield? Sigh.

It has been more than 10 years since Mosley (44-5, 37 knockouts) first won a world title, and it was overdue then. He’s 37 now and is still one of the top welterweights, the heaviest class in which he has been effective. He took Miguel Cotto to the limit only last year, a loss that may have enhanced Mosley’s reputation (even though Cotto subsequently lost to Antonio Margarito), much as De La Hoya’s narrow loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2007 enhanced his. That might have been the time to quit.

But these Mayorga fights are such celebrations if you either love the celebrity who’s beating him, despise the villainous  Mayorga, whose claims to fame are his two dismantlings of two-time Mosley conqueror Vernon Forrest, his active boxing style and his hyper-macho countenance. I dare you to ask the guy to put out his cigarette. Losses to Cory Spinks and Trinidad erased most of Mayorga’s mystique, and De La Hoya’s victory seemed almost like a Holiday on Ice exhibition.

And I do love Mosley, who first fought in my Bay Area midst at a 1994 “Shakedown in Quaketown’’ in Santa Cruz. As a lightweight (135 pounds) he seemed capable of exceeding the recent greats Roberto Duran and Pernell Whitaker as an all-around boxer-puncher, but at 5-foot-9 he obviously wasn’t meant to be a lightweight, and his first bout with De La Hoya lured him up to welter (147). And then, all too soon, Mosley lost to Forrest and then seemed to try to prove he was powerful enough to fight at any weight and wound up losing twice to the clearly larger Winky Wright, who dominated more than did Forrest or anyone else. Mosley did outgun Fernando Vargas twice at 154 and beat De La Hoya once at the weight, and the fact that Vargas lost a close fight to Mayorga makes Mosley-Mayorga at 154 well worth watching, especially since it is not pay-per-view.

So put on a great show, Shane, before the loved ones in L.A. And then go out at the top of your game. Don’t make those people worry about you.

YES, IT’S ON HBO
Mosley-Mayorga will be aired live Sept. 27 on HBO. I had to confirm it, seeing as how I reported erroneously that replays of the Sept. 13 Juan Manuel Marquez-Joel Casamayor pay-per-view would appear in late September on HBO.

The explanation: Although HBO distributed the Marquez-Casamayor card, it did not produce the broadcast. It’s my job to know those subtleties, and I’ll yet prove to you I usually do.

AND AS FOR DE LA HOYA AND PACQUIAO:
Oscar De La Hoya’s next best chance to exit in victory is the Dec. 6 bout with Manny Pacquiao, who as a 130-pounder succeeded Floyd Mayweather as the mythical No. 1, pound-for-pound, in the eyes of many of us. The promoters made the pairing official this week.

Pacquiao at 154, or even 147, would not be as strong, pound-for-pound, as he has been at 130 and 135. His heavy punch and his legendary quickness may be negated by the weight gain, and De La Hoya’s four-inch height advantage is no small obstacle.

Nevertheless, Pacquiao is not even a 2-1 underdog in the early odds-making. There’s no percentage in wagering on either fighter if it stays that way. Not that I bet, although I did drop $100 at Caesar’s betting against Mike Tyson in his 1995 rematch with Frank Bruno.