Mosley deserves Mayweather superfight after Margarito maulin

[celticgrafix]

How many times have we heard about how a distraction negatively affects an athlete or a team's performance?

It wasn't the Philadelphia Eagles that knocked the New York Giants out of the playoffs this season. It was the constant chatter about Plaxico Burress. The New York Knicks early-season struggles weren't because the team was lousy; it was because the players kept having to answer questions about Stephon Marbury. Some don't think the Arizona Cardinals should even bother showing up for Super Bowl XLIII, not with the possibility of Anquan Boldin and Todd Haley having another sideline quarrel.

The perception seems to be that athletes are physically unable to be successful unless they are competing under optimal circumstances.

Shane Mosley entered Saturday night's championship bout with Antonio Margarito under less-than-optimal circumstances. Let's be real: Mosley's personal life was downright lousy. He fired his father from his corner, his marriage was in shambles and everyone who could read believed him to be a steroid user.

Did Mosley cancel the welterweight title fight? No, he showed up at the Staples Center right on time. Did he make any excuses? Aside from (correctly) accusing Margarito of using an illegal pad in his hand wraps -- a pad that reportedly hardens when wet -- Mosley was silent. And did he allow what was happening in his life outside of the ring to impact what happened inside it? No, over the course of nine rounds, Mosley gave the performance of his life, a pole-to-pole slaughtering of Margarito that ended with the man many believed to be impossible to knock out crumpled on the canvas. In less than 27 minutes, the 37-year old Mosley vacuumed away the cloud of fear that enshrouded Margarito and re-established himself as the premier welterweight in the world.

How did he do it? There was no strategy, at least not a complicated one. Margarito has always been a straight-ahead fighter, one willing to absorb a considerable amount of punishment in order to dole out more. In the past, that style has made fighters afraid to stand toe-to-toe with Margarito. Last July, Miguel Cotto's game plan was to hit Margarito with a flurry and scamper away. That strategy failed when a stalking Margarito was able to eventually walk Cotto down and hammer him with hard shots.

Mosley's "strategy"? Hit him, hit him and keep hitting him. Like against Cotto, Margarito spent most of the fight coming forward. But unlike Cotto, Mosley was always there to meet him, pounding him with thudding right hands and left hooks, draining the spirit out of Margarito's eyes -- much the same way Margarito doused the fire in Cotto's. If Mosley was distracted, he was able to channel it and make Margarito the embodiment of all the negativity that surrounded him.

The question now for Mosley is, what's next? The answer should be even less complicated as his strategy against Margarito: Floyd Mayweather Jr. The retired Mayweather, who recently gave his advisors permission to explore a comeback fight, is a natural fit. Despite a narrow loss to Cotto in 2008, Mosley is now the clear No. 1 welterweight in the world and his popularity (more than 20,000 mostly pro-Margarito fans packed the Staples Center on Saturday) should make him enticing for Mayweather. Moreover, while Mosley showed impressive power against Margarito, he is not the type of big, physical fighter that Mayweather has been trying to avoid.

Can it happen? The events of Saturday night make it possible. Mayweather's primary complaint about Mosley has been that he feels Mosley is a past-his-prime champion just looking for a big payday. That is no longer the case. Whomever Mosley fights next, be it Andre Berto, Ricky Hatton or Joshua Clottey (Cotto is already slated to face Margarito in a rematch next summer), it will be a marquee event. While Mayweather once thought Mosley wanted to cash in on Mayweather's popularity, Mayweather can now reap the benefits of Mosley's.

If it does, Mayweather might want to limit the number of verbal grenades he tosses in Mosley's direction. Shane might like the distraction.

Chris Mannix >
INSIDE BOXING