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HBO World Championship Boxing Recap

September 27, 2008

Home Depot Center-Carson, California

WBA Inter-Continental Super Welterweight (154 pounds) 12-Round Match:

Shane Mosley (44-5, 1 NC, 37 KO's, 153.5 pounds) vs. Ricardo Mayorga (29-6-1, 1 NC, 23 KO's, 153.5 pounds)

This title is currently vacant. It was last held by Alex Bunema. He has left this strip of leather behind to go after a relatively more meaningful trinket.

Mosley had an outstanding amateur career. He won over 250 amateur matches and the 1992 United States Amateur Championships at 139 pounds. However, he lost in the Olympic qualifying tournament that year to Vernon Forrest, which denied him a trip to the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympic Games.

Mosley is coming off the longest layoff of his career, because a scheduled May 31 pay-per-view match with Zab Judah fell through. A few weeks before the match, Judah slipped in the bathroom ofhis Las Vegas, Nevada hotel and put his right arm through the shower door. The lacerations on Judah's arms required 50 stitches to close. Therefore, the match between Mosley and Judah was delayed until Judah was going to be healthy enough to compete. However, without notifying Mosley, Judah took another match with Joshua Clottey. That left Mosley without an opponent and out of action for months.

The Pomona, California resident's last match was an exciting 12-round unanimous decision loss to Miguel Cotto on November 10, 2007 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The match was historic, because it was the first 12-round match ever scored by CompuBox, where both boxers connected on the same number of total punches. The original recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/7/26/recap-of-cotto-vs-shane-mosley.html

Mosley is The Ring's number 4 contender at 147 pounds.

Mayorga had a good amateur boxing career winning a National Amateur Championship in his native Nicaragua.

Whereas, Mosley is a health and fitness fanatic who has gone so far as to take EPO injections from BALCO to increase the oxygen levels in his blood, Mayorga is a natural athlete that works to decrease the oxygen levels in his blood. Mayorga can smoke up to 3 packs of cigarettes a day (that is 60 cigarettes) and continues to drink beer while training. He says he has given up those habits during his training camp for this match, because his mother asked him to do it. However, it is very hard to quit a 60 cigarette a day habit cold turkey. Therefore, calling shenanigans here would be fair. Especially, since there was a story on his smoking habit in Friday's Wall Street Journal with a picture of him smoking. Amazingly, following this rigorous training routine he once missed weight for a match at 147 pounds by 6 pounds. He was given the usual 2 hours to try and drop some weight to allow for a catch weight match. However, he could not lose anymore weight. Therefore, after being the top boxer in the world at 147 in 2003, Mayorga was forced to move up to 154 pounds in April of 2004.

However, Mayorga has continued to struggle to make weight at 154 pounds. He was fined $100,000 for using an illegal diuretic to get down to 153 pounds for his May 6, 2005 match with Oscar De La Hoya. (Mayorga looked bad in that match and lost by technical knockout in round 6.) In this match, he was seen doing a full late night sparring session 4 days before the match. However on Friday he rushed to the salad bar before the weigh-ins, indicating he cut far too much weight on accident. Additionally, after weigh-ins he has put on 17 pounds in under 24 hours. Mayorga may have magically mastered an inhuman ability to cut weight or something is funny and will show up in the post fight drug test. The man with the infamous lifestyle does not look like a trim 170-pounder. This is a situation that should be tracked in the upcoming weeks.

The resident of Managua, Nicaragua's last match was a 12-round majority decision over Fernando Vargas on November 23, 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Mayorga is unranked byThe Ring, and the number 28 ranked boxer in the world at 154 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 34 or 35-years-old, Mayorga is 2 or 3 years younger then the 37-year-old Mosley. Both boxers stand 5' 9" tall. Mosley has the reach advantage with a 25" arm length, while Mayorga has 24.5" arm length. Mayorga's beer gut will make him the heavier boxer in the ring as he has unofficially rehydrated to 170 pounds since the weigh-ins. Mosley has unofficially rehydrated since the weigh-ins to 160.5 pounds. Both boxers will employ the orthodox stance. The MGM Grand has Mosley a 9-to-1 favorite in this match.

Two of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are from California and the other is from Puerto Rico. The referee is David Mendoza.

Mayorga wins an exciting round 1 behind his winging right hand power shots, 10-9. Lederman scores round 1 for Mayorga, 10-9. Mayorga appears huge in the ring next to Mosley. The Nicaraguan's aggression probably wins a very close round 2, 10-9. Mayorga wins round 2 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Using a bullying style, Mayorga wins round 3, 10-9. After 3 rounds, Mayorga leads my scorecard, 30-27. Lederman scores round 3 for Mosley, 10-9, but has Mayorga ahead in the match after 3 rounds, 29-28. Mosley's plan was to make Mayorga back up in this match, using short punches to beat Mayorga's looping punches. However, Mayorga has been able to rush in at will against Mosley, and has kept Mosley completely off balance. Mayorga is beating Mosley to the punch and pushing the Golden Boy Promotions executive around the ring at will.

Mosley wins round 4, 10-9. According to CompuBox, Mosley greatly out-landed Mayorga in round 4. However, the round appeared much closer. Lederman scores round 4 for Mosley, 10-9. Mosley easily wins round 5, 10-9. Mayorga is starting to really slow down. He is not coming forward much anymore. Mosley is now backing Mayorga up as he had planned to do, it just took a few more rounds to do then people expected. The Pomona, California resident wins round 5 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Mosley beat on Mayorga in round 6, like the Nicaraguan insulted his wife. Oh, wait... Mayorga did insult Mosley's wife. Mosley who does not possess a lot of power at 154 pounds teed off on Mayorga with repeated seemingly free shots. This was not the situation as in the past where Mayorga stuck out his chin and allowed his opponent to hit him. Instead, Mayorga stood flat-footed in front of Mosley and Mayorga's porous defense allowed the 3-division champion to land repeated right hands and combinations. The fact Mayorga takes a punch so well that he was never in trouble keeps that drubbing from being a 10-8 round. Mosley wins round 6 on everyone in the buildings' scorecard, 10-9. After 6 rounds, my scorecard has the match temporarily even, 57-57. Lederman has Mosley ahead in the match after 6 rounds, 58-56. In round 6, Mosley landed 25 out of the 43 total punches he threw, which is good for a total connect percentage above 55%.

Mosley punishes Mayorga with more straight right hands to take round 7, 10-9. The Pomona, California resident takes round 7 on Lederman's scorecard, 10-9. Mayorga has become a stationary target that is not putting up any defense against Mosley. Mosley does nothing in round 8. Mayorga does not land any clean punches in round 8, but his aggression wins the round, 10-9. After round 8, Mayorga stuck his glove up in the air in celebration of winning the round and was heartily booed by the crowd. Then before round 9 started, Mayorga got off his stool stuck both gloves in the air, then flexed at the crowd. That is a heel who knows why they are there. Lederman scores round 8 for Mayorga, 10-9. Close round 9 that Mosley wins, 10-9. After 9 rounds, Mosley leads on my scorecard, 86-85. Lederman scores round 9 for Mosley, 10-9, and has him ahead in the match after 9 rounds, 87-84.

With 6 seconds to go in round 10, Mayorga throws Mosley to the ground out of a clinch. The referee correctly rules it a slip, and the action resumes with only a few seconds to go in the round. Mosley takes round 10, 10-9. Lederman scores round 10 for Mosley, 10-9. Mosley wins round 11 on Lederman and my scorecard, 10-9. With 17 seconds to go in round 12, Mosley delivers a combination that he finishes with a left hand to a dazed Mayorga and the native of Managua, Nicaragua drops to all four's on the canvas. Mayorga successfully answers the referee's count to continue, and with 5 seconds to go in the match the action is resumed. It only takes one more punch. A left hook from Mosley, is the only punch thrown when the match is restarted and it puts Mayorga flat on his back on the mat. Just before the final bell rings to end the match, the referee waves off the match making Mosley the winner by technical knockout at 2:59 of round 12. Mayorga never appeared in danger of being stopped the entire match until the last minute. Then Mosley poured on the offense and finished with a flourish. This finish caused Larry Merchant, who was doing color commentary of this event for HBO, to exclaim, "Shane Mosley, I love you!" That should be the knockout of the year.

The official outcome from Michael Buffer is that: at 2:59 of round 12 the winner by knockout (this may be changed to a technical knockout), and new WBA Inter-Continental Champion, "Sugar" Shane Mosley. The win moves Mosley to 45-5 with now 38 wins coming by way of knockout and 1 no contest. This was Mosley's first match in the Los Angeles, California region in 8 years and his first knockout win in over 2 years. At the end he had his hometown crowd chanting his name. This match was ugly and boring at times. However, Mosley sent the fans home happy with a great dramatic moment.

The final punchstat numbers show Mosley's domination. He landed 144 of the 397 total punches he threw, for a 36% total connect percentage. Mosley landed 99 of the 214 power punches he threw, for a 46% power connect percentage. Mayorga landed 73 of the 588 total punches he threw, for a very poor 12% total connect percentage. The knockout victim landed 68 of the 429 power punches he threw, for a 16% power connect percentage.

Mosley in his post match interview said because of his need to get another match soon, that he will probably not be able to face either Cotto or Antonio Margarito (who is in the audience) next. When asked about facing Berto, Mosley was non-committal. That should be interpreted as the polite way of saying, "No".

Surprisingly, 1 of the judges had Mayorga ahead by a point entering round 12. Regardless of that, Mosley was very good in this match. Mayorga's unorthodox style and diminished skills make it hard to know how Mosley's win here will translate to other opponents. Mosley seems very small at 154 pounds and much better suited to 147 pounds. If Mosley wants a good paying match at 147 pounds, there is only 1 opponent that will be available soon, Paul Williams. Williams is likely to beat a soft opponent at the end of November and could be ready for a PPV date in February. With Margarito and Cotto out of the picture and Father Time looming, Mosley seems much more interested in facing Williams then he did a few months ago.

Mayorga does not belong at 154 pounds. His lifestyle at this point seems to make him almost a better fit for 168 pounds. However, Mayorga can probably only be competitive at 160 pounds. With his promo skills and strong showing here Mayorga could be in the immediate running for a shot at Kelly Pavlik. There are no name opponents for Pavlik at 160 pounds and Mayorga is a much marketable opponent then John Duddy. That could also be a very entertaining match to watch. Mayorga can blame the loss here on the extreme weight cut and go on his way competing at the higher weight classes like his fading in this match never happened.

There were parts of this event that were very good and other parts that were plain boring. This is a recommended watch, but knowing that there are going to be some lulls in the action.