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Mushrooms, Mud and Sugar
WED September 21, BUSTER PARIS - The other night I had baked stuff mushroom for dinner. It seamed like a good idea at the time. I had a craving for them and thought they’d make for a nice meal.
Boy was I wrong. They were slimy, nasty and repeated on me all night. Even thinking about it makes my face contort all sour and disgusted.
This is the same facial expression I had after each of the 10 rounds of Saturday nights (September 17 2005) bout between “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Jose Luis Cruz.
From before the 1st bell I was looking forward to a really good match. Shane’s a great fighter and Jose is an undefeated Mexican fighter with 32 wins. That’s a mighty combination – Mexican and undefeated – so you know it’s going to be a good fight, my hopes were high.
I was looking forward to seeing Mosley’s talent shine through. You can always count on Shane to rise to the occasion. Here’s a guy that goes up in weight and his 2nd fight in the Lightweight division he takes on the Golden Boy - Oscar De La Hoya and wins! (I actually think Oscar won that one though).
Shane doesn’t have to, but for his next fight he takes on Winky Wright, loses, but gives a brave showing and for the rematch performs even better. There’s no shame in either loss.
Shane goes back down to the 147-pound class and has a great showing against David Estrada. This night, September 17, was supposed to be a statement of sorts that he is once again the top dog in the Welterweight division.
The opening seconds of the 1st round confirmed and justified my high expectations. Sugar Shane landed a beautiful overhand right hammering Jose’s head. One of those highlight punches that ends fights.
45 seconds in and I’m thinking that this is great, Shane’s going to dominate the fight and I’m glad for him, he deserves to have one of those fights where he just showcases his talent.
Cruz’s jab is so slow and lazy that I’m sure Mosley will be landing 3 shots before Jose’s jab lands and Shane will be countering with another 3 shots before Jose draws it back.
But none of this happened.
The perfect summation of the fight was near the end of round 3. Shane misses a punch and almost falls over, then Jose tries to take advantage of this perfect opportunity to counter an off balanced and flailing Mosley and he misses his stab at it and falls down.
Pretty much the entire 10 rounds were sloppy and cluttered with wrestling clinches and infighting legs tangling up with each other like getting caught in overgrown seaweed. It almost seemed like they were fighting in a gluey pool of thick, oozy and heavy mud.
Mosley couldn’t capitalize on Cruz’s flaws, mistakes and lack of speed and Cruz couldn’t benefit from Mosley’s difficulty in dealing with a taller fighter and his not being able to get into a rhythm.
This isn’t to say the entire fight was crap. There were moments throughout the night where you could see that Shane was the superior boxer. Some of Mosley’s best moments were in round 4, which was the first round that Shane seemed worthy of being the favorite, he landed some hard shots and put together some good combinations. Rounds 6 and 9 would also be very good rounds for Sugar Shane.
At the end of the night Judge Duane Ford scored the bout 98-92, Judge C.J. Ross 97-93, and Judge Chuck Giampa had it 96-94, I didn't have it nearly that close as I had Shane winning about every round.
Even though he won I’m disappointed in his performance. I think it was an off night for him because this wasn’t the Sugar Shane Mosley that slugged it out in his battles with Winky, that danced the dance twice with Oscar and that consistently popped up on many a pound per pound list. I guess everyone’s entitled to an off night.
Post fight Mosley said that he thought he did pretty good, but once he sees the film I’m sure his face will contort all sour and disgusted – like he just ate some bad baked stuffed mushrooms.
Buster Paris can be reached at: bparis@talkingboxing.com - and always enjoys receiving your thoughts, comments and questions, but please – no baked stuffed mushroom recopies – he’s sworn off them.
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