Mayweather-Mosley signed in 2010's new super-fight
Out of the ashes of the failed negotiations for a superfight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao comes a matchup boxing fans have actually been waiting much longer for, Mayweather against Shane Mosley.
Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO's) and Mosley (46-5, 39 KO's) would square off on May 1st in Las Vegas.
Negotiations to pit Mayweather and Pacquiao in a March bout in what was expected to be the most lucrative bout ever, bogged down despite the intervention of a retired U.S. federal judge as a mediator. The sides could not reach a compromise on blood-testing issues. Mayweather requested random Olympic-style testing; with the Pacquiao side seeking limits as to how close to fight time blood could be drawn.
Pacquiao's representatives then turned to tough welterweight Joshua Clottey, pitting the two in a bout at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas on March 13th. Boxing observers have pondered what a fight would look like between Mosley and Mayweather since 1998, when both first became world champions, five pounds apart in the lightweight ranks. They appeared on course for a showdown in late 2006, but it never materialized.
Mosley, 38, will have been out of the ring for over 16 months come fight time, last appearing in a dominant 10th-round stoppage over Antonio Margarito.
Mayweather, who turns 33 next month, returned to the ring from a 21-month absence last September, winning an easy decision over Juan Manuel Marquez. Mosley crashed the ring after that fight, demanding the next opportunity from Mayweather.
It was reported that random blood testing will be undertaken for the bout. Mosley testified to a grand jury in the BALCO case that in 2003 he obtained from the lab the energy booster EPO and designed steroid THG, though he denied knowingly taking the steroids.
Shane Mosley's attorney confirmed the WBA welterweight champion has signed a contract to fight unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 1st, which is most likely at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Mosley's purse for the fight will be his "biggest ever" attorney Judd Burstein said, declining to reveal terms. Mayweather has yet to sign his own deal agreement, but Burstein said he has been assured by the Mayweather's lead advisor Leonard Ellerbe, that the signature would come sometime in the coming days.
It is unclear whether the fight will be for Mosley's WBA welterweight title, Burstein said.
"It's a fight people have wanted to see for a long time, but never happened for whatever reasons, now that it's going to happen, Shane is looking forward to doing what he and many of his fans have long thought he would do." Burstein said.
The fighters, who each spent the last decade ranked somewhere among the top in the lists of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, have won world titles in eight different weight classes.
The deal was struck with Mosley agreeing to all of Mayweather's stipulations for a stringent drug-testing protocol that will subject him to random blood and urine tests for performance-enhancing drugs all the way to fight night.
The 38-year-old Mosley was originally supposed to end a one-year layoff tonight after beating Antonio Margarito by ninth-round TKO last January at Staples Center, but his opponent Andre Berto had to withdraw because of the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti, where has family members.
Mosley prodded Mayweather and Pacquiao to fight him last year to no avail, as Mayweather accepted a comeback fight that he won handily against the lighter and significantly smaller Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather, earlier this decade, suggested Mosley was dodging him, and after Mayweather's fame was boosted by a 2007 victory over De La Hoya, Mosley has claimed Mayweather was ducking him.
Now, with a Mayweather autograph, the long-awaited bout will happen.