Manny Pacquiao Vs. Shane Mosley: News, Updates And Information

On Saturday afternoon, hours before his scheduled fight with “Sugar” Shane Mosley, welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao was reportedly involved in a car accident. Luckily, Pacquiao apparently sustained no injuries, and is still expected to fight Mosley on Saturday night. From TMZ Sports:

This is certainly good news for fans of Pacqiuao, the world’s most popular fighter. TMZ’s account seems to indicate that it wasn’t too much more than a fender-bender, so apart from making his team’s heart skip a beat, no harm done.

As they prepare for their Showtime pay-per-view clash on Saturday night, Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley met with the Showtime production crew to talk about the fight. This is standard stuff and where a lot of the quotes you hear on broadcasts come from as they talk about “when we sat down with the fighters” and such. The Showtime promotional series Fight Camp 360 has released some bonus footage of these meetings:

Manny is joined by his head trainer, Freddie Roach, while Naazim Richardson accompanies Shane Mosley. The always outspoken and entertaining Naazim continues to push the idea that no one should be thinking about Manny Pacquiao as a “small guy” despite Mosley’s height advantage and does it by pointing out that “Pacquiao has convinced you all he’s two inches tall and weighs thirty-two ounces.”

Top Rank Promotions will be streaming the bout between Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley (as well as the undercard) on their website for $54.99. This pay-per-view stream will provide customers with some unique options such as allowing viewers to choose between the main stream and international stream as well as having DVR functionality.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef recently spoke to MMA Junkie about the decision to stream the event:

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will likely never step into a ring together at this point. But that little problem won’t stop Floyd Mayweather Sr. from chiming in on tonight’s bout between Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley (9 pm. ET, Showtime pay-per-view). Check the video:

If ever there was a video that didn’t really need to be eighteen and a half minutes long, it’s this one. In between awkwardly telling Manny to “take the test” he finds a little time to discuss the Mosley vs. Pacquiao bout.

Saturday, May 7, 2011 sees the world’s number one pound-for-pound boxer, Manny Pacquiao, step back into the ring. Pacquiao will face “Sugar” Shane Mosley on Showtime pay-per-view. The PPV broadcast starts at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Shane Mosley - 46-6-1 (39 KO), 39 years old, 5’9”, 74” reach, Official Weight - 147 lbs

Fans who tune in to Showtime pay-per-view tomorrow for the bout between “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao will be treated to the best announcer in combat sports, Al Bernstein. Bernstein came onto the Showtime crew in 2003 but has been involved in boxing since the 1970’s. As such he has an incredibly deep knowledge of the sport and is incredibly effective at describing the action and breaking down key points. That skill at breaking down fights is on display here in Al’s Key’s to the fight for Pacquiao vs. Mosley:

As Al points out, there are only a few things that the fight comes down to. Mosley needs to find a place to land his right hand and he has to land it very hard. For Pacquiao it comes down to angling and combination punching. If he keeps busy and forces Shane to deal with his speed, it will be a very long night.

With Manny Pacquiao set to meet Shane Mosley Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view the plans are already in motion for Pacquiao’s next fight. The talk of a third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez has been picking up steam as of late and recently word came out that Marquez has been offered a huge amount of money to take the fight. Now, Jhonny Gonzalez of Boxing Scene is reporting that a November 12 date has been set aside for Manny’s next fight.

There is an immediate rematch clause in the Pacquiao vs. Mosley contract that dictates that Manny will get another shot at Mosley if he can pull off the huge upset win. If the expected happens, it would appear that Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3 will be next up for the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter.

Despite the fact that “Sugar” Shane Mosley is legitimately one of the top three welterweights active in boxing at the moment, he will enter his fight against Manny Pacquiao as a heavy underdog. The odds have Shane sitting at between +500 and +600 while Pacquiao is as much as a -1000 favorite. That means that you’d have to bet $1,000 just to win $100 if you make a play on Manny. Here’s a rundown of the odds at major books currently:

We’re now one day away from the Showtime pay-per-view clash between Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley. By all accounts this training camp for Manny has been fantastic, much better than some of his other recent camps. Despite the distractions of his political career and the constant attention of being the best boxer in the world, Pacquiao has settled down and focused on getting ready for the battle with Mosley.

MPBoxing.com released a video of Manny’s final day of training. The video is mostly fluff but there is some footage of Pacquiao hitting the mitts with trainer Freddie Roach toward the end. It’s really amazing to watch his handspeed and power when throwing combinations. Give the video a watch:

If September 29, 2007 feels like a long time ago to you, imagine how Kelly Pavlik feels. On that night Pavlik upset Jermain Taylor to win the middleweight championship. It was a great fight, one where Kelly had to pick himself up off the floor and overcome big trouble early in the bout to score the comeback knockout win. Only three fights after establishing himself as one of the top fighters in the sport, Pavlik was dominated by Bernard Hopkins in a catchweight fight.

Pavlik managed to pick up a pair of wins before his middleweight championship run ended at the hands of Sergio Martinez. His comeback attempt on the undercard of the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley was derailed by what was announced as a rib injury. In reality, the years of rumors that Pavlik liked to drink somewhat more than “socially” were confirmed as he checked into the Betty Ford Clinic to treat his alcoholism.

If you’re having thoughts about a potential superfight between boxing stars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. happening in 2011, you’re nuts. If you think it might happen in 2012, you might as well be. Mayweather, who already is facing several misdemeanor and felony charges, has been arrested again. This time the charge is misdemeanor harassment for threatening security guards over parking tickets.

TMZ reports:

A huge crowd of media attended the press conference for the bout between Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley. This a day after the fighters official “arrival” at the MGM Grand was attended by a larger than expected crowd of fans. Showtime Sports tweeted a photo of the media at the presser:

Both fighters appeared confident in their abilities heading into the Showtime pay-per-view bout. But, for Manny Pacquiao, it was a focus on the things that make him such an easy fighter to like:

Fight Hub TV caught up with Showtime announcer Al Bernstein to discuss Saturday’s bout between Manny Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley. Bernstein does a nice job of selling the fight, which is his job, but also makes cogent points about why this fight will be competitive. Check out the video:

One of the key quotes from the video is Al sharing Shane’s views on why he deserves to fight Manny after a fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. couldn’t be made:

Naazim Richardson and Freddie Roach are no strangers to being in the corner for huge fights. Richardson has been training “Sugar” Shane Mosley since before his bout with Antonio Margarito. Richardson became one of the most talked about men in boxing in January 2009 when he called out Antonio Margarito’s camp for loading his hand wraps with plaster prior to the Mosley/Margarito fight. Prior to that fight, he was most known for his time training Bernard Hopkins.

Where Richardson sits is in a difficult position. The once great Mosley is in the twilight of his career. Naazim was there when Shane appeared to revive his career with the drubbing of Margarito, but he was also there when Shane lost the lopsided decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and for the horribly disappointing draw against Sergio Mora. Now he’s in a place where he has to help Mosley maximize what he has left. Richardson knows what Manny brings to the table:

Much has been made of Manny Pacquiao’s spectacular rise from a kid that had to put rocks in his pocket to make minimumweight to the man who drubbed Antonio Margarito at 154 pounds. Manny’s amazing ability to move up in weight has baffled some and led to allegations of performance enhancing drug use. At Bloody Elbow earlier this week I summed up Manny’s rise through the weight classes with this simple reminder:

But “Sugar” Shane Mosley, the man who faces Pacquiao this Saturday on Showtime pay-per-view, wants you to know that he was small when he first got into the game as well. Via Bad Left Hook:

There’s an interesting piece today online on The Atlantic’s website about five things that will push boxing into the mainstream and five things will help keep it out. I tend to view some of the saviors and cancers as overstated, but it’s well-written, timely and thoughtful. The author is Gautham Nagesh, the editor of StiffJab.net.

Here’s Nagesh’s argument about why Pacquiao will ostensibly help push boxing back into the mainstream:

You can’t make this stuff up. Or maybe you could, but either way, you don’t have to. Like many ego maniacal athletes and pop stars before him (Michael Jordan, Britney Spears, etc.), Manny Pacquiao has launched his own men’s fragrance. This is the sort of product you launch towards the tail end of your athletic glory years. Coincidentally, it’s the last moment to take advantage of elite levels of fame and grift the last remnants of disposable income from adoring fans before they realize buying cologne endorsed by and imaged after an athlete is idiotic.

I’d rather shower in Febreze for a week than be caught dead wearing this cat piss, but I’m sure there’s a market for it. The L.A. Times reports:

You can always tell when a bout is a big deal when the entrance music used by the boxers is leaked four days before the fight like the results of a pre-taped reality show. It appears that we know that Shane Mosley and Manny Pacquiao will both dip into the classics for their ring walks.

Examiner is reporting that Shane Mosley will walk out to “Mama Said Knock You Out” by LL Cool J while Manny Pacquiao will enter to a live version of “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. It will be quite a sight to see LL and Survivor, both live in the ring, belting out classic “fight songs.”

In a bit of a “your jealousy is showing” moment for Floyd Mayweather Jr., the boxing star has started to make his way back into the current news. Mayweather had been unusually quiet for several months, but anyone familiar with “Money” knew that he would not let a huge weekend for his rival (Manny Pacquiao) go by without having some comment. Ben Thompson of Fight Hype caught up with Floyd to ask about some of the rumors and get his thoughts on this weekend’s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley.

On rumors that he would fight Paul Spadafora and Roger Mayweather’s talk that Floyd would fight in Dallas at Cowboy Stadium:

Marv Dumon of Examiner.com had a chance to sit down with Manny Pacquiao’s conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, to discuss Manny’s nutrition. Nutrition is part of the fight game that is often overlooked by fans and media alike until a fighter has problems with his weight. But the daily grind of training and the need to offset that energy output is a big deal as seen in these quotes:

When you think about the fact that Manny, a man who will enter the ring at 147 pounds, is having to eat 7,000 calories a day it is pretty amazing. Finding the balance in your nutrition and training that allows you to fight as strong and fast as you need is a vital task and one that we should all take the time to properly appreciate.

Manny Pacquiao wrapped up his training for Saturday night’s Showtime pay-per-view bout with “Sugar” Shane Mosley at the famous Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California on Tuesday. He closed up this portion of his camp with a little bag work for the media. Check out this video of Manny working the double end bag:

For those who have never tried working the double end bag, it can be one of the most incredibly frustrating experiences in the world. The speed and accuracy that Pacquiao displays hitting the bag while using lateral movement is one of those “not fully impressive until you’ve tried it” things.

Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley arrived at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this afternoon as they prepare for their clash on Showtime pay-per-view this Saturday. Reports from the Grand are that there were hundreds of people on hand for the arrival of the two top welterweights. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook gives details of the crowd reactions to the fighter arrivals:

The two men will take part in the official fight press conference tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. ET.

As Manny Pacquiao prepares to face Shane Mosley this Saturday at the MGM Grand Las Vegas arguably his greatest rival, Juan Manuel Marquez, continues to focus on getting a rematch with “Pac-Man.” Marquez, currently the top ranked lightweight in the world, has battled Pacquiao twice in his career; a draw in their May 2004 clash and a split decision loss in March 2008 rematch.

Despite Manny’s climb in weight to as high as 154 pounds, a third fight with Marquez remains something many boxing fans want to see. Top Rank offered JMM as much as $5 million plus a cut of the pay-per-view for a third bout, a move that Golden Boy quickly tried to undercut by offering Marquez a shot at Saul Alvarez:

Want to see video footage of the last time Manny Pacquiao lost a professional boxing match? HBO has you covered. It was six years ago the man to defeat Pacquiao was none other than Erik Morales. ESPN explains the significance:

Pacquiao would go on to defeat Morales via TKO in the tenth. He hasn’t looked back since. The ESPN write-up suggests Mosley could glean details that might help him in his fight this Saturday. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook doesn’t agree:

There’s an interesting article today in the New York Times where Manny Pacquiao claims he dervied his movements and some elements of his larger boxing style from martial arts legend and movie action star Bruce Lee. Wait, Bruce Lee? What could a kung fu fighter with choregraphed movement offer a prize fighter who has to improvise on the fly? Here’s how:

And this: