ATLAS QUESTIONS MOSLEY’S GAS TANK; SUGGESTS PEDS MIGHT STILL BE A FACTOR

In a recent interview with Percy Crawford of FightHype.com, ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas shared his thoughts on the matchup between 5-time world champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley and former jr. middleweight champion Sergio Mora. After briefly pointing out the natural size advantage that the bigger Mora will have, Atlas wasted little time in turning his attention towards Mosley and the subject of peformance enhancing drugs. “We know that Shane had a point in his career where he had used PED’s. We know that he was on the Balco list. We know that. That’s not an opinion or speculation; it’s a fact. We’re not trying to drown him in that or prosecute him again or put him through that, but it is a part of his past. And you have to wonder when you’re looking at these kinds of fights and handicapping a fight like this,” Atlas pointed out.

“You just finish watching him perform as bad as he’s ever performed in his career against Mayweather, and that was a fight where he was forced to make himself available for drug testing; if he had any thought of taking PED’s, he wouldn’t have been able to take them for that fight,” he continued as he explained that perhaps Mosley’s performance against Mayweather was an indication of his continued use of performance enhancing drugs throughout his career.

“Now, is this the first time we’ve seen him for awhile without the advantage of taking those? Was that a part of his lack of performance? It’s probable. I don’t know. But we do know that he could not take them for that fight against Mayweather because of the testing situation, and then he physically looked different. He didn’t look as good physically. It looked like his confidence level wasn’t the confidence level of Shane Mosley. Was that all because he was in there with Mayweather? I find that hard to believe. Shane Mosley has been in there with top fighters his whole life and suddenly he goes in there and doesn’t have the confidence and domain that he was born into? That he has been successful in for his whole life? There has to be a reason for that and one of the possible reasons may be that it was the first time in quite awhile that we saw him without the advantage of PED’s.”

It’s clear what Atlas is implying, and he brings up a valid point. Mosley’s performance against Mayweathter was a far cry from the show he put on against Antonio Margarito. Perhaps he simply got old overnight, or maybe Mayweather is that much better of a fighter; or maybe, just maybe there’s more than meets the eye. While we all hope that’s certainly not the case, it is indeed a strong possibility for someone who has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs in the past. Tonight’s showdown against Sergio Mora will tell us a lot about how much Shane Mosley has left in his gas tank…and it might also tell us exactly what he has in it.