Shane Mosley Misses Weight, Needs Second Chance
Photo by Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions
by Gautham Nagesh
Friday’s weigh-in for the Mayweather-Cotto HBO Pay Per View card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas was largely uneventful, with a large crowd and several networks lending themselves to the hype. The solitary sour note came when future Hall of Famer “Sugar” Shane Mosley missed weight on his first attempt, coming in half a pound over the junior middleweight limit.
Mosley passed muster after a second weigh-in, presumably having sweated off the extra weight. Shane seemed genuinely surprised at coming in over 154 lbs., but cutting it so close is surprisingly unprofessional for a veteran ahead of a championship fight. Mosley was already a heavy underdog against Mexican sensation Saul “Canelo” Alvarez tomorrow night, and the perception that Shane is only in it for a paycheck wasn’t helped by today’s events. We didn’t make a prediction for this fight, but the weigh-in has me thinking Canelo stops Mosley for the first time in Sugar Shane’s career.[[MORE]]
Headliners Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto both appeared to make weight comfortably, with Floyd weighing in at 151 lbs. and Miguel right at the division limit of 154. Floyd was all smiles as the two stared each other down, but things grew heated as Cotto finally began responding to Mayweather’s trash talk. It would be hard for anyone to not eventually get upset by Mayweather’s antics, but hopefully Miguel was just selling PPV buys. He needs to keep his cool if he hopes to pull off the stunner tomorrow night.
We’ve been watching old tapes of Cotto and Floyd all weekend and they’ve reminded me of just how dynamic Miguel was during his rise. If he can re-capture some of his body punching magic, particularly that crunching left hook downstairs, he might be able to soften Floyd up for the later rounds. But Floyd used to be quite the left hook artist himself, and if he decides to use his lead hand more, he could dominate this fight.
The one thing Miguel needs to avoid is switching back and forth from southpaw to orthodox. Even though his left is his stronger hand, he delivers it with more leverage from the orthodox stance. Also, he tends to square up more when he switches, which results in him trading and getting caught. Staying skinny and orthodox while moving his feet laterally is the only way for Miguel to survive, and I expect his trainer Pedro Diaz to deploy some form of that strategy.
But Floyd is a magician and has an answer for almost any approach. Relentless pressure is another potential tactic, but that could result in a short fight and a long night in the hospital for Cotto. We still like the mint condition Mayweather to stop the slightly faded Cotto, but reported odds of 7-to-1 are an insult to the Puerto Rican champion. We give Cotto a 1-in-5 shot to pull the upset, but our money is still on a Mayweather stoppaged in the 10th.
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