Sugar Shame: Steppingstone
It happens to all future Hall of Fame fighters if they stick around past their expiration date. The long and winding road from amateur to Golden Gloves champ to hot prospect to professional titleholder to steppingstone is not a journey that all fighters make. But enough of them do, and the signposts are markers indicating exits that might have been taken but in many instances were not.
Forty-year-old Sugar Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) has reached that turn in the road. In his private moments he must occasionally contemplate retirement, but publically he’s barreling full steam ahead. Although Mosley is 2-3-1 in his last six fights, suggesting that the writing, or at least the numbers, are on the wall, Shane is looking elsewhere, for another shot at glory or another big payday.
Because Mosley is a great fighter, has been a great fighter, he still has his moments in the ring. But as the years have progressed they become fewer and far between. He has lost his speed, as do we all, but he has not lost his power or ring smarts. Yet few are the gladiators who can successfully adapt when their shield falls to the ground.
Mosley’s name has emerged amid the chatter regarding fights to be made and potential opponents with whom to make them. Mosley is now technically an opponent. The fighters he’s being considered being matched with, Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan, will degrade the somewhat degraded status of opponent even more to that of steppingstone.
“They offered me a fight with Canelo,” Mosley told ESPN.com, “and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll take it.’ Then they came back to me and said, ‘What about Amir Khan?’
“I said, ‘No way at 145.’ I might do it if it was at 147. I was thinking 149 or 150. It’s possible, but I would want to be sure everything is right. It’s interesting, but it depends on the setting, the weight, what type of money.”
The possibility of Mosley fighting Amir or Canelo is intriguing on one hand and dispiriting on the other. I’m the last person to deny anyone the right to earn their daily bread. But at the same time I don’t want to see Sugar Shane hurt, which Khan is capable of doing, and which Canelo, protected or not, whether he emerges victorious or not, will certainly do.
“If Golden Boy is willing to put their guy, Canelo or Amir, up to fight me, so be it. I’m excited to get back in the ring.
“I’m better than anyone Canelo fought. By all means, put me in with him and let me knock him out. To me, Canelo is a warm-up for me to another fight. We can definitely do that.”
It’s not over till it’s over, and it’s not over for Shane Mosley until he says it is.
