Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Shane Mosley in Las Vegas (Photo: Chris Robinson – www.HustleBoss.com)
By Chris Robinson
In advance of his son’s upcoming professional debut, former three-division world champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley ventured with him to Las Vegas to get some work earlier this month.
Putting in some rounds at the Mayweather Boxing Club, Shane Jr. sparred with gym regulars such as Lanell Bellows and Kevin Newman as his father intently watched on while offering up some advice.
After the work, the elder Mosley sat down with gregarious trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. to discuss several aspects of the sport with HustleBoss.com.
The last of our conversations revolved around the impending clash between Mayweather Sr.’s son Floyd and Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, who clash on May 3 at the MGM Grand.
Having shared the ring with Mayweather in a losing effort in May of 2010, Mosley sees several reasons to like Floyd in this contest.
“I think his biggest advantage is his experience, his speed,” Mosley stated. “He has underrated power. And just his knowledge of the boxing game is going to be his strength.”
Reacting to Mosley’s comments, Floyd Sr. echoed the same sentiments.
“Shane just said it all,” Floyd Sr. stated. “I see the same things too. Floyd is faster, he’s smarter, he’s slicker, he’s clever.”
It also seems to be the deficiencies of Maidana that give Floyd Sr. as much confidence as anything else.
“I said, this is a straight up comer man, with no defense and aint no fighter going to win too good if they aint got no defense,” Floyd Sr. noted. “He don’t have no head movement, no swing in his legs, nothing man. I don’t give a damn how hard he hit. If you can’t hit nothing then you can’t do nothing.”
Mosley stands out more than anyone as being the one guy who seemed to genuinely have Floyd in serious trouble in their match, as he rocked him with a pair of pelting right hands in the second round that had him shook.
Still, Floyd was able to weather the storm very well before readjusting to control the rest of the action and Mosley tips his hat to him.
“Floyd, he can change up in the middle of the fight,” Shane explained. “He’s a smart fighter. He figured out a way of changing the way he ducked and I could no longer hit him with the right hand. And the fight was all Floyd from there.”
Floyd Sr. weighed in with his two cents about that memorable round and revealed why Maidana’s power isn’t too concerning to him.
“A punch can change anything,” Floyd Sr. added. “But I’m just saying that what Floyd did with Shane, not every fighter could have did that with Shane. But Floyd uses his brain and that’s the difference.”
Chris Robinson can be reached at Trimond@aol.com