Shane Mosley: The Difficult Task of Defining his Career

Shane Mosley’s career is now likely at, or very near, the end.

This is not because he lost to Manny Pacquiao; everyone does lately.

It is because he seemed to feel old and unwilling to take risks in their fight May 7 boxing match.

Mosley’s three most recent fights were relatively sad affairs. He lost lopsided matches against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao and looked tired in a draw to Sergio Mora. In time the embarrassment of these matches will fade as perspective allows for them to be seen as nothing more than an old man looking his age.

Those fights are not representative of Mosley’s career as a whole. However, now that his career is for all intensive purposes finished the time is approaching where Mosley’s place in boxing history can be judged.

Looking over the span of his career it becomes surprising just how difficult it is to ascertain what Mosley is to the sport of boxing. He represents both the highs and the lows of the sport. His victories are impressive but tainted. His losses are significant but mostly respectable.

Mosley’s career is a yin-yang of the good and the bad of the sport of boxing.

Mosley has always been what boxing fans want inside the ring but has tarnished the sport outside of it. He fights everyone, is affable in interviews, and, until recently, has provided fan friendly fights.

Boxing politics, ego or fear has never caused Mosley to hesitate to fight anyone. He is beloved for that reason.

However, un-fulfilling boxing can be at times fans could always rely on Mosley to remain active and to not allow anything to stop him from fighting the best.

The problem is that he has also been caught with steroids as noted in most boxing outlets and detailed on Wikipedia.org. If Shane represents everything that the sport needs in the ring, he also represents the sport’s greatest fear aside from corruption—that the feats of the athletes are not naturally occurring.

That such a beloved and respected figure could also be using steroids is a devastating blow to boxing fans.

Mosley’s boxing resume reads like a who’s who of the last generation. He has fought the best the world has to offer in Oscar de la Hoya, Miguel Cotto, Vernon Forrest, Fernando Vargas, Ronald Wright, Antonio Margarito, Mayweather and Pacquiao among others.

The problem is that in the above list of fighters, he has only beaten three of them. The significance of his wins over two opponents is debatable as Vargas was past his prime, and Mosley used steroids in the second fight with de la Hoya.

While Mosley also had an impressive career at the lighter weights and has successfully moved up it is hard to ignore that he has a losing record against his best opposition and some of his best.

The question does remain though: In a time period which is marked by fighters being afraid to challenge themselves, how critical should we be of the losses a fighter accrues when he is willing to fight the best? Mosley has consistently fought top notch opponents.

Mayweather and, to a lesser extent, Pacquiao have both been criticized for taking on easy fights lately while Mosley has soldiered on against the best. Mosley’s losses definitely hurt his all time standing, but his willingness to fight top fighters helps it.

There are numerous questions which must be decided upon before Mosley’s career is finally judged. Which is more important: His list of losses or his list of opponents?

Does the steroid scandal nullify all accomplishments? Does his consistency at lightweight out weight his inconsistency of the last half of his career? Does such a lengthy career as a top ten fighter in whatever weight class he fought in nullify his short championship reigns? Ultimately does all this lead to a place in the Hall of Fame?

Looking over Mosley’s career as a whole, it feels as though we witnessed a talented fighter, composed of both great and horrible qualities, whose career may fall just short of being great.

Were I to have a vote, Mosley would not make it into the hall of fame…but just barely.