Mosley Delivers Word to Wise With a Victory

You really couldn’t blame critics for questioning whether “Sugar” Shane Mosley had true welterweight power entering his second fight at 147. After all, Mosley had jumped two weight classes from 135.

But Mosley answered those questions quickly Saturday night, within the first three minutes.

That’s when he dumped Willy Wise, a $9-an-hour forklift driver from New York, for the first time courtesy of a combination body punch and right hand to the head. The second time Mosley dropped Wise was with a body blow, and it ended the fight at 2:28 of the third round.

Utilizing a frightening combination of power and accuracy, Mosley, of Pomona, improved to 34-0 with 32 knockouts in front of a standing-room-only crowd of more than 1,800 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino as the main event of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” series.

“It was fun because after I dropped him [in the first round] I was like, ‘Wow, I dropped him with that shot?’ ” said Mosley, who earned $1.1 million for his first fight in Las Vegas. “That’s when I knew I was going to knock him out, sooner or later.”

Mosley peppered a tense Wise with combinations from the start. Toward the end of the first round, he stunned him against the ropes with a body shot before sending him to the canvas with a right cross to the temple. A wobbly Wise survived as the round ended before Mosley had a chance to finish him off.

In the second round, referee Mitch Halpern penalized Mosley two points for a late hit after a clinch that dropped Wise. It was a scene reminiscent of Mike Tyson tagging Orlin Norris after a first-round clinch in October, when Norris went down and the fight was declared a no-contest.

But ringside physician Flip Homansky concluded that Wise was good to go.

Wise went down twice early in the third--both times were considered slips--before Mosley and Wise bumped heads and Mosley caught him with the crushing body shot that sent a grimacing Wise down for the final time.

“He was a strong puncher and the body shots hurt,” said Wise, who earned a $110,000 purse. “Punches didn’t knock me out. A head butt knocked me out, and [Mosley] knows it.”

Wise was groggy after the fight.

Said Mosley: “Really, we head-butted each other as I was bobbing in for the body shot. I was coming in and his head hit mine. We hit each other before I caught him with the body shot.”

Mosley not only showed power, he displayed a willingness to brawl, which delighted the fans. He also established himself in the upper echelon of welterweights.

Mosley has said that he expects to be paid handsomely for a possible fight at Staples Center this summer against Oscar De La Hoya, who is scheduled to fight Darrell Coley on Feb. 26 at Madison Square Garden. It will be De La Hoya’s first fight since he lost to Felix Trinidad.

“I believe Oscar might be next, but I haven’t been negotiating with anyone,” said Mosley, who gave up the International Boxing Federation lightweight title he held for 18 months when he moved to welterweight. “We just need to negotiate so I can get the proper amount of money I deserve to fight Oscar De La Hoya.”

In the semi-main event, Vernon Forrest, of Augusta, Ga., defended his North American Boxing Federation welterweight title with an uninspiring 12-round unanimous decision over Vince Phillips, the former IBF junior welterweight champion from Pensacola, Fla.

Judges Carol Castellano and Chuck Giampa scored the bout 117-111, and judge Gale Van Hoy had it 120-108. The Times scored it 117-111.

Forrest improved to 31-0 and Phillips dropped to 40-5.

In a preliminary event, Kevin Kelley, the former World Boxing Council featherweight champion from Flushing, N.Y., dealt Frankie Archuleta, of Las Vegas, N.M., his first loss with a vicious knockout at 2:59 of the ninth round of a scheduled 10-round super featherweight bout.

Kelley improved to 51-4-2 with 34 knockouts and Archuleta fell to 18-1-1.

In other bouts, Pat Coleman (27-5), of Rockford, Ill., won by unanimous decision over Cirlo Nino, of Reynosa, Mexico, in a six-round middleweight bout; Robert Davis (19-0), of Akron, Ohio, scored a second-round technical knockout of Wesley Martin, of Killeen, Texas, in a heavyweight bout, and Charles Shufford (13-0), of Las Vegas, won by second-round TKO over Jeff Lally, of Louisville, in a heavyweight bout.