By Ian S Palmer
Shane Mosley Jr of Ponoma, California will be fighting in his hometown this Saturday, February 18th as he takes on Mario Alberto Lozano. The 10-round super middleweight tilt can be seen live on DAZN in most nations on the undercard of the Luis Nery vs Azat Hovhannisyan bout. Mosley last boxed in April when he beat veteran Gabriel Rosado via a 10-round majority decision to take the WBA Continental Americas Super Middleweight title. Lozano was last in the ring in August 2019 when he was stopped in the seventh round by Liam Smith.
The 32-year-old Mosley Jr isn’t on the same level as his famous father but is still a solid pro in his own right with a record of 18-4 with 10 Ko’s. He stands 6-feet-1-inch tall with a 77-inch reach and has boxed 112 rounds since making his pro debut in 2014 after reportedly going 37-10 as an amateur. Mosley isn’t really known as a heavy hitter either as he currently owns a knockout ratio of 45.5 per cent.
Mosley’s four defeats came at the hands of Marchristopher Adkins by four-round split decision in his third pro fight; by eight-round split decision to David Toussaint in 2017; a 10-round unanimous decision to Brandon Adams in 2018 and a 10-round majority decision to Jason Quigley in 2021 for the vacant WBO NABO middleweight title. As far as pro titles go, Mosley also captured the vacant WBO NABO Super Middleweight Title in February, 2021 when he stopped Cristian Olivas after five rounds. His toughest tests to date have been Adams, Quigley and Rosado.
As for Lozano, he’s now 35 years old and hasn’t fought since August of 2019 so he’s definitely going to have some ring rust to face along with a pretty good opponent in Mosley. He climbs into the ring with a mark of 33-10 with 24 Ko’s and has 248 rounds of experience under his belt since making his pro debut in 2006 following a brief amateur career.
Lozano measures just over 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 69-inch reach which means he gives up 4.5-inches in height to Mosley and eight inches in reach. He does have pretty good power in his hands as 24 of his 33 wins have come by stoppage and has a current knockout ratio of 55.8 per cent. However, let’s now go through his 10 career losses.
His first defeat came in a wild affair with Karim Mayfield in 2009 as Mayfield was down in the second round and Lozano was dropped in the fourth and sixth rounds with Mayfield hitting him after he was down in the fourth and having a point deducted. Mayfield took a close six-round unanimous decision. He’s also lost decisions to Ruben Amezcua, Ivan Pereyra, Charles Hatley, Vanes Martirosyan, Jermell Charlo, Gustavo Garibay and Patrick Teixeira.
Lozano has a pretty good chin as he’s been stopped just twice; by Alejandro Gomez in the fourth round in 2013 and by Liam Smith in 2019. Between 2013 and 2015 Lozano lost four fights in a row. He then bounced back with four straight wins but has lost his last two. As a pro, he’s captured the WBC FECEMBOX Welterweight and Middleweight Titles. This will be his first outing as a 168 lb super middleweight and he’s never weighed in to any previous fight above 158.75 lbs.
Prediction…
Mosley has everything going for him here as he’s fighting in his hometown against a 35-year-old opponent who hasn’t fought since 2019 and is fighting as a super middleweight for the very first time. Mosley also has a huge height and reach advantage over Lozano. You can probably see where this is going, but Lozano does have good power and can take a punch. Still, I’m expecting Mosley to win here pretty handily.
