Shane Mosley Vs Canelo Alvarez

 Shane Mosley Vs Canelo Alvarez

Fight Date: 5th May 2012

Without doubt, Shane Mosley was, and still is a great fighter. There's also no argument that Shane Mosley has faced the much better opposition in his last few fights compared to Canelo. Just take a look at Mosley's last 3 opponents: Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, and Sergio Mora. We have two of the best P4P boxers right there. Compare that to Canelo's last 3 fights: Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez, Kermit Cintron. They are good fighters, but no where near the level of being considered anywhere close to the P4P best boxers in the sport. It's fair to say that this fight is a step up for Saul Alvarez.

However, Alvarez has one huge advantage over Mosley, and that's age. On both sides. Mosley, as we have witnessed in his last 3 fights tires badly after 4 rounds and basically fights the rest of the fight on the back foot in survival mode. Just doing enough, but never quite enough to win any rounds over the busier fighters. He's not badly hurt when fighting this way but it looks at if he is trying to save his energy because perhaps he's slightly paranoid of becoming seriously gassed out and getting knocked out as a result.

Saying that, styles make fights and these two fighters have similar styles, so it should be a great fight.

Saul Alvarez is like a younger Miguel Cotto, he's firing on all cylinders right now. It's hard to believe that Saul Alvarez is just 21 years old with 39 professional fights under his belt! Where as Mosley, no matter how good he looks in training, and he does look good, he always looks completely spent in the actual fight when it goes past a few rounds. Maybe this will always be Mosley at 40 years old. He had his peak a long time ago.

Mosley still has huge power, and that's a threat to anyone. Saul Alvarez does have that boxing style where he gets hit quite regularly. But as we seen against Mayweather Jr, Mosley had Mayweather in serious trouble in the second round but he just couldn't follow up the attack. Mosley really needs a one punch knockout in this fight.

Alvarez is not scared of Mosley's power either. It looked to me like Mayweather could have stopped Mosley but he didn't apply more pressure because he didn't want to take any unnecessary chances and risk getting caught with another big punch like he got caught with in the second round. Mayweather, although he did apply pressure to Mosley, and was the aggressor, he played it safe and just sailed to a points victory.

Boxing's is a young mans sport despite there still being a few oldies knocking about, and Mosley hasn't aged well in that respect. He is no Bernard Hopkins in terms of turning back the clock . Then again, how much can we expect of Mosley. I mean, he has gone the distance with two of the best boxers in the world so surely that's a hell of an achievement at 40 years old. Is Alvarez even on Mayweather's level? Many doubt it, and that's what makes this fight interesting. These two meet in the middle somewhere. It's Young lion Vs old lion.

The only thing letting Mosley down is his age and unless Mosley gets lucky with a huge punch, he has little chance, specially the longer the fight goes on. Canelo, at just 21 years old, and already being very experienced and equally as powerful, is too much for Mosely right now.  I have to be honest, I would love Mosley to win but it's a long shot.