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November 13th, 2009 | by Tim Harrison
 The time for talk is over. The war of words between WBA champion “Sugar” Shane Mosley (46-5-0, 39 KO) and WBC champion Andre Berto (25-0-0, 19 KO) was a fine teaser for fans that follow them on Twitter. Both men traded barbs, each man saying the other needed to sign the contract. In one particularly offensive 140-character slap from Berto, he claimed Mosley’s ex-wife wore the pants in their marriage and Mosley had suddenly grown up (I’ve paraphrased and cleaned up the language). While some of the insults were entertaining, others were downright disrespectful. At times, it was like watching a couple of elementary school children on a soccer field.
In the end, both men put pen to paper and the fight has been made. Golden Boy Promotions announced it would hold a press conference this Saturday before the mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, possibly to take advantage of the hordes of media members already in the city. The fight is set to take place at the Mandalay Bay events center on January 30, 2010.
Berto opened up the boxing calendar in 2009 with an entertaining, but controversial win over Luis Collazo, he looks to do the same against Mosley, minus the controversy. Mosley has stated, “I’m going to ruin his (Berto’s) career”.
The 38-year old Mosley represents the toughest test of Andre Berto’s young career, a test that could drastically alter the flight path of his career. Berto blew away C and D-level competition in his first eighteen fights. He faced his first test against Cosme Rivera, as he was dropped in the sixth round and forced to show his true grit in scoring a ten-round unanimous decision victory. Berto later won the vacant WBC crown over an untested Miguel Angel Rodriguez before defending with three straight decision victories over Steve Forbes, Luis Collazo, and Juan Urango. Berto looked less than stellar in his title defenses, which raised questions about his defense and conditioning.
Mosley is looking to clean out the welterweight division before he leaves boxing. Securing an opponent has not been an easy task for Mosley. Opponents have not been eager to put their name on the dotted line after witnessing his easy destruction of Antonio Margarito. He publicly called out Floyd Mayweather after his shutout win over the over-matched Juan Manuel Marquez, and has been clamoring for a fight since last January.
We’ve seen boxers age overnight. Glenn Johnson looked to be one punch from overwhelming the younger Chad Dawson in their first fight. In their rematch last weekend he looked every bit his forty years. One has to wonder if the long lay off will present a similar problem for Mosley. Will ‘Father Time’ overwhelm him? He looked old and ineffective as he struggled with Ricardo Mayorga in September of 2008. Four months later, he looked like he turned the clock back five years as he battered Margarito to take his WBA title.
Shane Mosley is an enigma, indeed. Will the young Shane Mosley show up on January 30th, and give the young lion (Berto) a lesson in boxing and respect for one’s elders? Or will we witness the leader of the pride forcibly removed from his position of power? We’ll have to wait until January 30th to find out. In the meantime, we can tune in to the press conference to see if there will be any pre-fight fireworks.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 2:20 AM.
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November 13th, 2009 at 10:31 AM
I’m a big Berto fan …. He COULD definitely be the future of the welterweight division, but Shane’s the wrong guy to mess with right now (unless your Paul Williams)
…. Shane WILL stop Berto!
November 14th, 2009 at 1:41 PM
haha finally andre berto back in the ring again. and he is fighting shane “i need to be put back in the spot lite fast before my wife takes everything from me” mosley, i must say i am also an andre berto fan he fights alot like floyd except his defense isnt too good but he packs a punch. im personally so tired of hearing shane syaing he wants to fight floyd. floyd need the money thats why he is fights again. News flash mosley floyd has made more money in his last 2 fights than mosley has made his entire career. mosley needs the money. mosley gonna get a chance to prove why he should be fighting floyd in this upcomming fight because of berto style. the only thing is that berto is gonna win and shane will go bye bye or get moved to showtime bitch!
November 16th, 2009 at 1:26 AM
It was brought to my attention (post-publication) that neither Shane Mosley’s WBA, or Andre Berto’s WBC titles will be at stake in the fight. This strange turn of events puts a rather dull edge on a potentially sharp title unification bout.
December 28th, 2009 at 12:42 AM
This weekend has been a blast man I have been obsessed with this full tilt poker game ive been playing. I didn’t even know about full title poker until the other night when my cousin invited me over to have dinner with him and his wife. Dude I stayed up all night playing it. I am almost embarrassed to admit gragg advertising
December 28th, 2009 at 7:56 PM
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