Shane Mosley officially announced his retirement on Saturday night. Sugar Shane is coming off a loss to Anthony Mundine in Australia, and finishes his career with a 47 (39) – 9 – 1 career record.
It’s not the first time Mosley has announced his retirement, but this time, it should certainly stick. Here’s what he had to say to media who were in Brooklyn:
“It’s a young man’s game. It’s time to step aside and let some of these young guys do their thing.
“I’m going to stay around the sport and work as a trainer,” he said. “I’m training my son and a couple of other young fighters.
“It’s time to go. I’m retired.”
While he has, until very recently, been able to stay in the limelight in the final portions of his career, like most fighters, he didn’t go out on a high note. He went 3-5-1 in his final 9 career fights, although the losses came to luminaries such as Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Saul Canelo Alvarez.
It’s easy now to forget the utter dominance of Sugar Shane Mosley when he was a lightweight champion on the rise. Not only was he fantastically gifted athletically, he offered a combination of power and speed that has rarely been seen in the squared circle.
The high mark of his career came when he jumped two divisions to take on rival Oscar De La Hoya, and defeated him in a thrilling and closely contested affair. Mosley would defeat De La Hoya again, but would come to dread two-fight series with anybody else, losing to Vernon Forrest and Winky Wright twice each, taking an undefeated record and marring it with four losses in five fights.
He would rebound, ironically with another two-fight series, this time against Fernando Vargas, as well as wins over Ricardo Mayorga and Luis Collazo, before the final stretch we mentioned above.
Really, it’s good to see Mosley step away. He’s hung around too long. And he was too good of a fighter, and is too good of a person, to take unnecessary punishment and risk his health.
Enjoy your retirement, Sugar Shane!
