Mosley Is Not Ready for a Sweet Surrender

In the early days, his nickname fit him like the boxing gloves he used to carve out a niche at the top of his profession. For “Sugar” Shane Mosley, life was indeed sweet.

The peak was a victory over Oscar De La Hoya in Staples Center in 2000, a triumph that appeared to move Mosley out of his long-time Southern California rival’s shadow.

But it was never that good again for the former super-welterweight champion from Pomona.

It started to unravel with an unintentional, jarring head butt in a fight against Vernon Forrest in January 2002 in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Mosley never recovered that night, losing his first professional fight after having gone 38-0 with 35 knockouts.

Since that night in the Garden, Mosley has won only one of five fights. And even that one, a 2003 rematch with De La Hoya, was tainted by accusations of steroid use and improper selection of judges. Mosley backed up his denials of steroid use with a polygraph test, and questions about the judging proved unfounded, but the glow of victory already had been diminished.

Behind the scenes, the frustration level was just as high. Since that Forrest fight, Mosley has been through three promoters and is on his third trainer, having fired his father, Jack, who had served as manager and trainer.

Mosley’s trainer now is John David Jackson, a former middleweight and light-middleweight champion, and Jin Mosley, his wife, and Judd Burstein, his lawyer, are guiding his career.

The instability has contributed to Mosley’s decline, according to critics, who point to Saturday’s card in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas as an example.

Antonio Margarito’s defense of his World Boxing Organization welterweight title against Kermit Cintron is the main event on ESPN’s first pay-per-view card, and Juan Diaz’s defense of his World Boxing Assn. lightweight championship against Ebo Elder was to have been the second fight. Mosley’s 10-round welterweight bout against David Estrada had been the third bout.

Mosley-Estrada has been moved up but only because Diaz cut his left eyelid and his fight with Elder has been canceled.

Has Mosley’s career fallen so far that he needs a break to move up to the semi-main event?

Not according to Burstein, who says Mosley will receive $500,000 for Saturday’s fight, after turning down a $1-million purse to fight May 7 on the Showtime cable network because it would have prevented the scheduling of the Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo fight now set for that date.

“To their credit, Shane and Jin made the decision that they didn’t want to do that to a friend of theirs like Diego Corrales,” Burstein said. “You have to understand something about the Mosleys. They are honorable people. Nobody else in boxing would have turned down a million dollars.”

Mosley also turned down an offer to fight on HBO on the undercard of the Marco Antonio Barrera-Mzonke Fana card earlier this month. That would have also been a $500,000 payday.

“My ego is not that big where I have to be in the main event,” Mosley said. “I don’t have that kind of arrogance where it all has to be about me.... For now, I’m glad to fight on this historic first card for ESPN. I can enhance this card.”

Gary Shaw, Mosley’s last promoter until he was fired, says Mosley’s ESPN appearance illustrates the fighter’s need for better guidance.

“If he had a promoter, he would explain to him that going from HBO to being an undercard fighter on ESPN is not a good move, because it makes people think you are an undercard fighter,” Shaw said. “I question the trend of wives becoming involved in their husbands’ careers.”

Dan Goossen, who was unsuccessful in signing Mosley for his promotional company, agreed with Shaw.

“Some fighters think promoting just involves getting $100 for a license,” Goossen said. “You wouldn’t make Kobe Bryant the coach of the Lakers. He’s a player. If you want great teams, you need coaches and managers to point them in the right direction. It’s the same thing in boxing.”

Jin, Shane’s wife of two years, is not shy about responding.

“I understand why promoters say that because they want to take control of the fighters themselves,” she said. “With all promoters, managers and wannabe trainers out there taking advantage of fighters, somebody has got to be watching the fighter’s back. Which is going to be a problem for some promoters....

“With me involved in Shane’s career, he gets to keep 80% of his purses. Fighters whose wives are not involved are lucky if they get half.”

Said Richard Schaefer of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which has also tried to recruit Mosley: “I wish more wives were out there looking out for their husbands like Jin does for Shane. She genuinely has Shane’s best interests at heart.”

Criticism of his wife and his future prospects haven’t gone unnoticed by Mosley, 33.

“There’s a lot of fire in my belly,” he said. “I haven’t felt this way in long time. I have even more hunger now because there are more critics, doubters, haters.”