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Shane Mosley Jr Talks Gabe Rosado Win & Moving Back To Middleweight
Shane Mosley Jr. spent a part of his Wednesday morning getting new tires for his car nearly two weeks after beating the brakes off Gabe Rosado. The 31-year-old Las Vegas fighter outboxed and dominated Philadelphia’s Rosado in a majority decision victory in a 10-round super middleweight affair.
Judge Angel Mendez apparently saw a close fight, but thankfully judges Tom Carusone (98-92) and Ruben Carrion (97-93) passed their eye exams and had Mosley comfortably winning their Golden Boy-promoted chief support bout on April 9 at Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Rising lightweight star Ryan Garcia outpointed Emmanuel Tagoe over 12 rounds in the main event.
While the one-sided affair was seen as an upset by many, chalk Mosley as one who saw it coming after a phone call with his father, Hall of Fame fighter and three-division world champion, Shane Mosley Sr.
“My dad [pointed out] and I had the same idea in mind; when you watch him and [Jaime] Munguia fight, there’s back-and-forth action. Because of who Gabe Rosado is, a lot of guys want to break him, to knock him out. That’s great and all, but when you’re firing, you leave the door open for someone to fire back. I think [Rosado] expected me to [trade] with him. [When I fought] Jason Quigley, I outboxed him for like four rounds. And then we started bringing the fight; I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll bring the fight back.’ And I think that’s what Rosado expected me to do, to engage in a fight with him.”
Both fighters promised a violent affair, but Mosley turned the tables on his opponent and made it a chess match. A focal point of training camp was to improve his focus. Albeit the fans rained boos from the opening bell, Mosley rained jabs and counter right hands.
“I knew if I stayed focused and stayed true to what I planned to do—which was outbox him— I knew that he couldn’t keep up with me as far as speed; I knew he couldn’t keep up with me with my boxing [skills]. But I knew he could keep up with me if I started banging with him because that’s where he’s best.
“Obviously, that’s how he caught [Bektemir Melikuziev] in a third-round knockout], right? He knocks him completely out because he got caught up in the fight. He got caught up trying to knock out and stop him because he saw the opportunity. And that’s when Gabe Rosado capitalized on him. He played possum and set him up and knocked him out.”
But Mosley (18-4, 10 KOs), who was controversially outpointed by Jason Quigley last May 29 in Las Vegas, did not fall for Rosado’s tricks and picked up the most significant victory of his eight-year professional career. Furthermore, the 31-year-old has arguably won six bouts in a row dating back to his 2018 points defeat to one-time title contender Brandon Adams.
Multiple Olympic boxing coaches have noted just how much Mosley has improved over the last several years. Back in 2014, things were not looking so promising for Mosley. We asked what the critical component has been in his transition from prospect to potential world title contender. “For one, I train not only with my regular trainer, Bones Adams, and my dad, but also I would do some mental training with my coach, Brandon Epstein, and I feel like that helped my focus.
Are things lining up just right for Shane Mosley Jr. to compete for a title next year? Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy
“I really felt like my focus helped me change the fight as well as being able to endure all of the situations that have happened in life, and fights where things haven’t gone my way. You have to persevere through these things, and you go through struggles, but it really changes and forms who you will eventually become. If you don’t have those things sometimes, you can’t really build or craft that perseverance.”
Up until the Rosado fight, Mosley has spent most of his career as a middleweight. With the 168-pound titles locked up due to undisputed champion and pound-for-pound king Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) moving up to 175 to challenge Dmitry Bivol on May 7 in Las Vegas, Mosley believes his best chance to snag a world title—as soon as possible—is to go back to middleweight.
“Everybody wants a Canelo fight, so that’s going to take some time to get sorted out. In the meantime, I feel like it would probably be in my best interest to collect some of those middleweight belts.”
