One of my regular readers wrote me to say that Ricardo Mayorga was “nothing but a Neanderthal street brawler.” I believe that this simple description of the wild, awkward Nicaraguan is spot on and therefore I highly recommend him for a long term deal with Geico.
Yet inexplicably Shane Mosley took until 2:59 of round 12 to stop Mayorga and put us all out of our misery. I’m still at a total loss to explain how such a gifted professional with exquisite natural skills managed to engage in such a ponderous, bumbling affair with such an appallingly limited opponent who lacks even the most elementary technical expertise, but it happened Saturday at the Home Depot Center before 5,800.
It should be entered into the record that that is one pitiful turnout. As brilliant as his career has been, the legendary Pomona resident couldn’t even fill the tennis stadium in Carson. After years of giving his all in the ring and giving fans their money’s worth, that’s really something to ponder. Shane is not a natural box office draw without help and it’s a mystery as to why.
We were told before the fight that Mayorga claimed to have quit his three packs a day cigarette habit and had told his mother that he had quit drinking. Therefore we would see the “best ever” Mayorga. Somehow I don’t find it particularly comforting to hear from a 35 year old athlete that he was willing to forego a lifetime of vices for eight weeks and actually train for a fight against a future Hall of Famer.
Could it be that the 37 year old Mosley has finally faded to the point that even the likes of Mayorga are a trial? At that age you never know which night you’ll be undressed in the ring in front of everyone. Of course a top fighter like Mosley would never think of a Mayorga being the opponent when it happens.
Maybe the explanation is as simple as Mosley, who has been campaigning at 147, rehydrated from 153.5 to 160 while Mayorga went from 153.5 to 170. Throughout the fight Mosley clocked Ricardo with clean, flush right hands but Mayorga absorbed them.
For his part, Mayorga fought a street fight from bell to bell. His mauling, rushing, wrestling tactics, combined with his wild misses kept Shane off balance in the early going and forced him to be more tentative than he might otherwise have been. So basically Shane was a victim of Mayorga’s incompetence.
Personally I didn’t think that, all things considered, Shane fought a bad fight, although granted it was not his finest performance. I had him up by five points after 11 rounds. One judge agreed with my score. But surprisingly the other two saw it as 105-104, one favoring Mosley, the other Mayorga.
Yikes! The very thought of Mayorga squeezing out a draw over the local hero Mosley by winning the 12th round sends chills up my spine. Obviously there was no hometown advantage as far as the scoring went. Apparently Mayorga’s superior work rate influenced two of the cards. But how about accuracy and clean, effective punching?
Mayorga landed 73 of 588 total punches, an embarrassing 12% connect rate. He was 68 of 428, or 16%, in power shots. Quick mathematical equation– yes, that means he was 5 of 160 on his jabs. That is not effective aggression by any means.
Conversely, Mosley was 144 of 397 total punches, 36%, and 99 of 214 in power connects, 46%. It’s really difficult for me to imagine a man who landed 73 punches in a 12 round fight as a winner, or even close, particularly when said fighter is outlanded by a 2-1 margin while his wild swings missed by as much as two feet.
But I must say that while Mosley failed to get hometown support from the judges, referee David Mendoza managed to make up for it in round 12.
Just inside the final minute of the fight as the seconds ticked off before going to the scorecards, Mosley hurt Mayorga with a right. Shane opened up with a scorching flurry and a left finally put Mayorga on the canvas with 16 seconds remaining. Mendoza never bothered to send Mosley to a neutral corner and Mosley stood nearby like Jack Dempsey over Jess Willard.
When Mayorga beat the count and resumed fighting inside five seconds to go, he was immediately tagged with a picture perfect left hook that left him prone on the floor. Mendoza immediately and justifiably stopped the fight at 2:59, which actually seemed more like 2:595. But if Mosley had been stationed in a neutral corner he wouldn’t even have had time to land the punch, plus Mayorga wouldn’t have gotten caught without so much as an opportunity to get his hands up.
In any event, thanks in part to the neglect of Mendoza, the fight came to an appropriate conclusion. Hopefully this will be the end of Mayorga as a designated pigeon for marquee fighters seeking an impressive knockout win. He’s now been stopped by Trinidad, De La Hoya, and Mosley, but enough already.
Obviously Mosley is in no position for an extended wait to get to Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto. WBC welterweight titlist Andre Berto, who won a snoozer over Steve Forbes in the co-feature may be an option, but Mosley says he wants the mega fights, not the trinkets. I wouldn’t expect any less from such a competitor.
But the bottom line, sadly, is that the Mosley of Saturday night could well be crushed by the likes of an in prime destroyer such as Margarito, who fights with everything he has for three minutes of every round. That’s not how we want to remember Shane, fending off the tenacious Mexican.
All things considered, Berto and a belt might be just the right way for a true great to go out.