By Ian S. Palmer
It might have come a year or two late, but ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley has finally retired from boxing after realizing he doesn’t have what it takes to compete with the world’s young elite fighters. Mosley was convinced of this after losing decidedly to 21-year-old junior middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez on May 5 on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs Miguel Cotto bout.
The 40-year-old Mosley used his Twitter account on June 4 to announce that he was hanging up the gloves for good. He thanked his fans and said he had a wonderful career and loved every minute of it. He turned pro in 1993 and will very likely find himself in the International Boxing Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible with his record of 46-8-1, with 39 KOs.
Mosley, of Pomona, California, said he’ll stay in the sport as a promoter and also trains his son Shane Mosley Jr., who’s currently enjoying his amateur career. He claimed that he just couldn’t do the things in the ring that he wanted to anymore and that’s simply a part of getting older. When he was younger though, he could certainly achieve just about anything in the ring and proved this by winning five world championships in three different weight divisions.
Mosley credited his former sparring partners Zack Padilla and the late Genaro Hernandez for much of his success as well as his trainer and father Jack. If there was any controversy involved in Mosley’s career it came back in 2003 when he was involved in the steroids scandal known as BALCO. Mosley admitted that steroids were in his system, but didn’t know he was taking them.
Mosley got an early start to boxing by taking the sport up as an eight-year-old. He enjoyed an excellent amateur career, but failed to make the U.S. Olympic team in 1992 after losing to the late Vernon Forrest in the Olympic trials. Forrest would also come back to haunt Mosley years later by handing him his first two losses as a pro.
His first world title win came in 1997 when he beat the undefeated Philip holiday by unanimous decision for the IBF lightweight belt. He defended the title eight times between 1997 and 1999 and won all of them by knockout, including five defences in 1998 alone. The Boxing Writers Association of America voted him as boxer of the year in 98 with his father being named the year’s best trainer.
Mosley then moved up in weight to the welterweight division and after a couple of tune-up fights took on Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 for the WBC title, beating him by a unanimous decision. He defended the belt three times by knockout before meeting Forrest in 2001. Forrest knocked Mosley down twice in the bout and won a unanimous decision. A rematch was held just six months later, but the result was the same.
A move to junior middleweight was Mosley’s next step and he challenged De La Hoya again, who was now the WBC and WBA champ of the division. Mosley earned a controversial unanimous decision and his third title in different weight classes. He then rejected a third bout against De La Hoya and took on IBF champion Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright. However, Wright won by unanimous decision and became the undisputed champion and beat Mosley by majority decision in a rematch eight months later.
Mosley fought at both welterweight and junior middleweight after that and won five consecutive bouts, including a pair of knockouts in 2006 over former junior middleweight champions Fernando Vargas. Mosley took on WBA welterweight king Miguel Cotto in 2007 and dropped a unanimous decision. His next win and the final one of his career came in 2009 when he knocked out WBA welterweight champ Antonio Margarito in the ninth round.
Mosley then lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by unanimous decision, drew with Sergio Mora, and lost unanimous decisions to Manny Pacquiao and Alvarez before retiring.
