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'I'm ready' Mosley ready to challenge De La Hoya
Posted: Friday June 16, 2000 12:23 PM
Shane Mosley's 94% knockout rate is the best of any champion in boxing history. On Saturday night he intends to make it even better as the former lightweight hopes to knock out WBC welterweight champ Oscar de La Hoya at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. CNNSI.com's boxing correspondent Nick Charles spoke with Mosley to get some insight on the challenger's plans for the fight. Nick Charles: Shane, how will you take out the Golden Boy when nobody has before? Shane Mosley: I think by me breaking down with body shots and head shots I think my accurate punches and my aggressive style will be the factor of this fight. Charles: How have you changed physically and mentally since last August when you first made the leap of two weight classes to welterweight? Mosley: I'm a lot stronger now. Mentally I'm focused, I'm ready and this is the fight I've been waiting for a long time. I just want to go in there and show the world what Sugar Shane is made of. Charles: Well Shane, Oscar admits he ran out of gas and confidence against Felix Trinidad, the only loss in his career. Why not with your fast hands and footwork, force this to be a long, elusive, frustrating evening for him, stay away from his danger zone and just win on points? Mosley: Because that's not my style. My style is to go in there, make it exciting and win the fight. It doesn't matter if I'm going backwards or forwards. I'm not going to give him space to rest. Charles: He wants to make this a brawl. Do you plan on him bringing serious heat to you right away? 
Mosley: I don't think he will do that. I think if he does that, then he'll probably think twice after he gets hit with a couple of shots. Charles: How can you use his aggression if he is overly aggressive? Have him run into shots? Give him movement? Angles? Mosley: Definitely. I'm definitely going to move him anyway, if I'm going forward I'm going backwards. He's going to get movement for the whole fight. But just the speed and the power is going to throw all that off. I think that his whole game plan will change in the fight. Charles: You are a two-fisted banger who fights with fire and you are one of the rare guys who works the body. How will you get to Oscar's midsections? Mosley: Well, he holds his hands, his guards kind of high and low so he's open for head shots and body shots. It's just a matter of me moving my head from side to side and angling my body in the right position to get to that body shot. Charles: You've had two welterweight fights. In your first one, you struggled in the middle rounds a little before knocking out the Iron Chin, Wilferdo Rivera (Mosley smiles). And then you crushed Willy Wise. Yet Jesse James Leija who's fought both you and Oscar says your power doesn't compare to De La Hoya's. How do you answer that? Mosley: Well, it might be true. When I was a lightweight, I wasn't as strong as I was a welterweight. I had problems from the first time I fought for the (unintelligible) to making lightweight. So, I don't know. It could be true, maybe not. But I know a lot of the sparring partners that I have now say I hit like a light heavyweight. So that lets me know I have good power. Even the light heavyweights say that. Charles: If the fight goes long Shane, who does it favor and why? Mosley: It will probably favor me because I'm fighting for the full 12 rounds. Oscar fights for a good four rounds and his hands drop and he starts making mistakes. You can't change that. You can't go into a fight...if that's what you do, that's your normal pattern, that's what you are going to do. And I'll be waiting on that too, if he gets past the first round. Charles: Why risk getting into a collision fight with a power puncher right away? You can set him up for a late KO also? Mosley: Well, I believe that I'm stronger then him all the way around. I believe that physically I'm stronger than him so I will be able to take control of the fight from bell one. I want to get to his mind, let him know that I am the better fighter. That's what this fight is all about. To let him know that pound for pound, I am the best and you can't beat me. Charles: What matters most, the money or the chance to fight Oscar De La Hoya for the title? Mosley: The chance to fight Oscar for the fight. The money doesn't matter. The money is going to probably go to my son and nephews and all my other siblings that may come along. I don't care too much about the money. I just want to be secure in life and be able to take care of my family -- my father, my mother, my sisters and everybody can reap the benefits of my success. Because they helped me out throughout all these hard and trying times I had during my life. Charles: After a lifetime in the gym, Shane Mosley is looking at Oscar De La Hoya, not as an obstacle, but an opportunity to achieve world wide acclaim Saturday night in Los Angeles. Good luck Shane. Mosley: Thank you.
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