The fight is happening at least three years later than it should have done but there is a lot to like about the match between “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas and Sugar Shane Mosley that takes place at the Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas on 25 February.
The 12-rounder in the light-middleweight division is in some ways a last chance for both men. The winner can go on to another big pay-per-view television fight. The loser? Well, big names can be almost endlessly recycled, it seems, but whoever loses this fight might feel that it is time to get out of boxing.
It is common knowledge in the game that neither man is quite what he was. Vargas, 28, has suffered devastating knockout losses against Felix “Tito” Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya and has battled a nagging back problem and struggled with weight. Yet the former light-middle champ remains a huge attraction with a loyal fan base.
Mosley, 34, suffered consecutive losses to Vernon Forrest (getting hammered and almost stopped in the first fight) and lost twice to Winky Wright but he holds two wins over Oscar De La Hoya, who is now his promoter, and like Vargas he is a big name who has been in a lot of big fights.
Each man has won his last two bouts on 10-round points decisions and neither was considered impressive. But put the two together in a fight that really means something and it is guaranteed to bring out the best in them both. There will be an electric atmosphere in the arena with support for both men and I think that this is going to be a very good fight between southern California rivals who know and respect each other and see no need for the insult-trading of, say, the Bernard Hopkins-Jermain Taylor rematch.
Vargas has shown more of a slick-boxing style in his last two fights — the wins over Raymond Joval and Javier Castillejo — and he heard some boos, which is rare indeed for this normally crowd-pleasing fighter. But for this fight he promises to get back to being “El Feroz”. The Vargas plan is no secret. He intends to go right after Mosley, who is seen by the Vargas camp as the naturally smaller and less powerful man.
Although Vargas weighed the light-middle limit for the win over Castillejo his last two fights before that had been as a middleweight. He turned professional as a welterweight, Mosley as a lightweight. And Vargas is perceived as without doubt the puncher in the fight. He has stopped 22 opponents in his record of 28 wins and two losses and although he had to go the full 10 rounds in his last two fights I thought that he was hurting the durable Joval while he floored Castillejo, another sturdy sort, in the third: If the knockdown had happened a minute earlier in the round I doubt if the Spaniard would have survived.
Mosley, meanwhile, has halted 35 opponents in his record of 41 wins, four losses (plus the “no contest” with Raul Marquez, who was cut from head clashes). However, Sugar Shane has not put anyone on the floor since his third-round knockout of Bristol’s Adrian Stone four-and-a-half years ago. Most of his inside-schedule wins were when he was overwhelming opponents with his hand speed and body punching as a 135-pounder (22 KOs in his first 23 fights). True, he stopped three overmatched challengers in welterweight title fights but since then he hasn’t been blowing people away.
This doesn’t mean that Mosley’s punches are completely without authority. I thought he hurt De La Hoya with body blows in their second fight, the one where Sugar Shane’s win was considered controversial, and he had the gritty David Estrada wilting from hooks underneath in the fourth round of their fight at Caesars Place in April of last year. Had Mosley sustained the body attack that night I don’t think Estrada would have gone the route.
So, while Vargas certainly has the advantage in firepower it doesn’t mean he is going to be able simply to walk right through Sugar Shane.
As for the match weight, it would appear to favour Vargas because he has been fighting as a light-middle and even middleweight while Mosley has been boxing as a welterweight. But shedding weight has long been a struggle for Vargas, who lately revealed that he had a dire time of it getting down to 154lbs for the fight with Castillejo, including a debilitating sauna session the day of the weigh in.
This time, though, Vargas says that he has been doing things the right way, with his weight under control before he entered training camp.
Vargas’s long-time adviser, Roland Arellano, said in a telephone conversation that Fernando was in training over the festive season in the small town of Ojai, California, a health-and-wellness resort and spiritual sanctuary about a 90-minute drive north of Los Angeles, with his family just dropping in “to say hello” during Christmas.
So Vargas clearly is giving the Mosley fight his full attention, all business.
“We’re in a full-bore fight now,” Arellano said. “This is the opportunity for Fernando Vargas to get back on the world stage.”
Arellano admits that Vargas had let his weight get out of control (which wouldn’t be the first time) before the Castillejo fight.
“It’s kinda hard to maintain your mental focus when you go to camp focusing on weight,” Arellano said. “That kinda takes a drain on you. If you go to camp focusing on technique and boxing -specific skills, it’s a lot easier for you.”
Arellano said that Vargas is in the place where he should be, mentally and physically, going into the fight with Mosley.
“I see Fernando basically identifying that in the last previous fight he had not been in top condition necessary to go 12 rounds,” he said. “I see Fernando basically being an aggressive fighter, the fighter that the public has learned to know and respect. I see a lot of pressure on Shane Mosley. We’re not focusing on Mosley’s weaknesses, we’re focusing on his strengths and we want to neutralise his strengths with a lot of pressure and good, tough, forward moving.”
That means shutting down the ring on Mosley, not giving Sugar Shane the chance to move and box.
But Mosley’s trainer, the former champ John David Jackson, says Vargas is welcome to bring it because Sugar Shane will have something waiting for him. And even though Vargas will be the heavier man, Jackson does not feel this will necessarily be an advantage for El Feroz. Also, Jackson believes that Mosley was essentially a boxer in transition in his last two fights when he outboxed David Estrada and the rugged Jose Luis Cruz, when he was concentrating primarily on fine-tuning his defence and being fast and elusive.
Discussing the fight over the phone, Jackson said: “It’s a very good fight for Shane. We plan to come in about 151 [pounds], we don’t have to be too heavy. He’s the quicker fighter, I’d say smarter. Physically stronger? I’d give the advantage to Fernando, but at this weight they’re more than equal because even if Fernando gets the weight down it’s a struggle to maintain it — he’ll never be as strong as he was prior because his body is so used to that [extra] weight now.
“There’s two ways that Vargas can approach the fight. One is to do what he’s been trying to do and boxing, and that doesn’t work to his advantage — the other would be to be aggressive. But if you really look at Fernando’s fights, he wasn’t like a, let’s say a Joe Frazier-type aggressive pressure fighter. He’d come in and do what he could with certain fighters.
“You see, Fernando is an older veteran — Shane’s last two opponents were younger kids with something to prove. They wanted to get where Shane’s been; Vargas has been there to a degree. Vargas is long in the tooth also. He’s not going to go in there and throw caution to the wind although he might say that. A loss will put him in the back of the pack so that’s going to play on his mind, also. If he wants to jump on Shane early, he might get a big surprise. They are about the same size. I think Shane will surprise him with Shane’s physical strength. Shane might not be the biggest puncher at 154, 147, but he has a lot of pop left.
“I think if he tries to jump on Shane — which I love — that plays right into Shane’s hands, it allows Shane to box the way he can.”
Mosley was not particularly impressive against Jose Luis Cruz but Jackson said: “The average fight fan might say it wasn’t vintage Shane Mosley, but the man is not 21 any more. You can’t expect him to do what he did back when he was a lightweight champion. To me he didn’t receive as much damage as he has in other fights. He did get hit, but not a hell of a whole lot. His defence is improving. I’m not trying to take away from his offensive arsenal but he’s trying to get used to what I’m showing him and incorporate it in his own style. He showed glimpses here and there of what he can do but didn’t put it together the way I know that he can and he knows that he can.
“We’re prepared for everything. If he tries to box Shane, that’s going to hurt Fernando. He has to jump on Shane, and that’s going to allow Shane to box more. Shane’s showing more defensive skills — now we’ve got to make sure the offensive part comes out.
“I think if Shane goes to the body early he’ll zap whatever strength that Fernando will have and take it away from him in the later rounds, depending on how much strength he has left over from making that weight. The later rounds will tell what’s left in Fernando. I think he can break Fernando down. He still has the hand speed to do it and the foot speed to outmanoeuvre this guy. And the weight’s not as much of an issue for Shane as it is for Fernando.
“Personally I would never short-change anybody, anything can happen, but if Shane is on top of his game — and I’m going to do my best to make sure everything goes smooth — it’s an easy fight for Shane. He’s too smart, too intelligent. It’s interesting on paper, but in the reality I think Shane will be the more dominating fighter, especially as the rounds wear on, and if the body attack is the way it should be, after the first six rounds it will be no contest — I look for a late-round stoppage.”
Unlike Jackson, I would be very surprised if Mosley was able to stop Vargas but I think he should win. Vargas has had too many problems — the weight, the bad back, the knockout defeats. He was dropped by Wilfredo Rivera, who isn’t considered much of a puncher, and he had a first-round wobble against Jose “Shibata” Flores, while the last few rounds against Castillejo were gruelling — and this was against a 37-year-old, inactive veteran. Even allowing for weight problems it was worrying to see Vargas under quite that much pressure from Castillejo in the home stretch.
His great fighting heart as much as his talent and his punching power has pulled Vargas through in tough situations, and the way he got back into the fight after a shocking first round against Tito Trinidad was breathtaking and quite amazing. But I just get the feeling that, of the two men, Vargas, even though he is the younger man, has gone back further and suffered more trauma than has Mosley.
I expect a great effort from Vargas but I think Mosley will be a little too slick, sharp and savvy and I expect Sugar Shane to box and counter punch his way to a unanimous decision victory.
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