DE LA HOYA-MOSLEY 2 PREVIEW:
HEAD GAMES OR FOOT GAMES?

September 5, 2003 - by Ron Borges

Shane Mosley insists his feet work faster than Oscar De La Hoya's and maybe they do but the World Boxing Council junior middleweight champion believes he has an advantage of his own and it's in his head. Or rather inside Mosley's head.

"He is a hungry fighter,'' De La Hoya said of the only man most people in boxing believe ever legitimately defeated the sport's Golden Boy, "but sometimes your confidence level can go down after not winning in three fights. I think physically he will be ready but mentally it will be tough. We'll see how he comes into the fight.''

Mosley is 3-2 with a no-contest since first defeating De La Hoya by split decision on June 17, 2000 and has not won a fight since he stopped Adrian Stone 26 months ago in three rounds. That is a long dry spell but what has made it worse is that in his last three fights Mosley was twice beaten (and floored) by Vernon Forrest and then looked far from impressive in a tuneup for his Sept. 13 rematch with De La Hoya against Raul Marquez that was stopped in three rounds after an inadvertent head butt deeply cut Marquez.

De La Hoya, on the other hand, has not missed a beat (or missed handing out a beating) since his split decision loss to Mosley, winning the 154-pound title barely a year later from Javier Castillejo and crushing his southern California rival Fernando Vargas in his last major fight almost exactly a year ago.

While Mosley has struggled to get another big payday, De La Hoya remains the box office king of his sport and has, as Mosley said recently, "the face that corporate America loves.'' In other words, Shane Mosley may have won a fight from De La Hoya three years ago but nothing else changed but his record.

That has weighed heavily on Mosley's mind ever since. He has felt disrespected and was stunned when De La Hoya refused to exercise a rematch clause after their first fight that would have paid Mosley $10 million. What Mosley learned from that experience was that while he may have beaten De La Hoya he still needed him more than De La Hoya needed Mosley.

What followed that victory were two frustrating negotiations for a second fight. The first failed miserably when Mosley priced himself out of existence by insisting on comparable money, a thought that didn't seem all that outrageous to him since he had just beaten De La Hoya but which the fallen champion knew he never had to accept because he had more big-money options than Mosley.

The second came after Mosley lost his welterweight title to Forrest as well as a rematch five months later. Those defeats cost him whatever leverage, momentum and bargaining power he thought he had and left him having to accept a rematch deal that pays $4.5 million plus $500,000 extra out of De La Hoya's purse if he wins again. Having to agree to such a purse arrangement so irked Mosley that he has publicly tried to deny it, saying "the money is already mine.'' Well, only if he wins because under the terms of his promotional contract he is guaranteed only the $4.5 million. He also has an upside of $2.50 for each pay-per-view sale between 600,000-700,000 homes and $5.00 for each sale in excess of 700,000. That upside, industry insiders claim, could push his total purse possibly as high as $6 million if the fight does as well as some expect but that pales in comparison to De La Hoya's deal.

The champion stands to earn $17 million if the fight does as expected and to find yourself earning barely 25 per cent of that to face a guy you dethroned three years ago can weigh heavily on your mind if you allow it to. Add to that the fact it's been more than two years since you actually defeated anybody in the ring and, well, you have to wonder what's going on inside your head in the dark hours of the night when sleep is difficult to find.

In De La Hoya's mind, these small slights and concerns of Mosley's all factor into his mental makeup as the biggest fight of both their careers approaches. What he sees is an opponent who remains among the most talented in the sport but one who now is living with doubts about his abilities inside the ring and questions about his drawing power and popularity outside it.

But even beyond what ever psychological advantage he believes he might hold, De La Hoya also believes in something more important. He believes in himself. Although he thinks Mosley is mentally fractured because of what has happened to him, he thinks even more strongly that he doesn't need Mosley to be weak for him to be strong.

"Shane was the best (out there) and I've always said I have to fight the best to try and be the best,'' De La Hoya said, emphasizing in his subtle way the word "was.'' "Eventually I knew I would fight him again. Whether it was in 2000 or 2001 or 2003 I knew I was going to fight him. The fight was supposed to happen right away but he wanted ridiculous money so he went on with his career and I went on with mine. I had a plan for myself. Whether this fight happened then or three years later the result will be the same.

"He keeps saying he's faster than me and that I can't handle it but I know now how to neutralize speed, which I didn't back then in 2000. The way to neutralize speed is knowing how to throw punches at the right time, not just throwing very fast punches and hoping one lands. Throwing with timing and throwing lots of jabs.

"I'm a better fighter now than I was when we fought before. Is he? Back then I was a one-handed fighter. Now I'm a two-handed fighter. Now I can use my right hand as well as my left. I've gotten better as a fighter. He's 3-2 since we fought last.''

In other words, Shane Mosley is not as sweet any more as he once was. He is not Sugar Shane in De La Hoya's eyes and, the champion seems to think, not in his own mind either. Losing can do that to a fighter.

Losing creates doubt. Losing creates hesitation. Losing creates questions that cannot be answered until you are back in the ring with someone like De La Hoya, who is at the top of his game and in the minds of many at the top of his sport. Quite often, losing creates more losing.

When they finally square off in the ring at a jam-packed MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sept. 13, De La Hoya will learn quickly just what Mosley he is in with and Mosley will learn the same. He will learn if he is still Sugar Shane despite his long victory drought or if Oscar De La Hoya's intuition is right about the debilitating effects of what has befallen him since they last met.

When that night comes, Mosley says his speed will dominate. He says he will be back on his toes like he was on June 17, 2000, flashing angles that confuse De La Hoya and beating him to the punch with superior hand speed. Boxing's Golden Boy thinks otherwise. He believes it is far easier to talk that way than it is to do it when the moment comes because he has been there. He was beaten in a controversial decision by Felix Trinidad and came back to win again. He was beaten by Mosley and came back to become a world champion once more.

When that first bell rings, Oscar De La Hoya will know that he is the only man in that ring who has come back from defeat to win again. Shane Mosley will know it too. What that does to both of them no one can say but one of them believes he already knows.

"He still has the same trainer and he still basically fights the same way,'' De La Hoya (36-2, 29 KO) said of Mosley and his father, Jack, who has trained him since his amateur days. "That's going to work against him because a lot of times the father can't accept the fact that he just can't teach his son anything more. That can be his downfall. I think we saw that when he lost against Vernon Forrest and then again when he had a no contest with Marquez. A fighter's confidence level has to be down after no wins in his last three fights.''

Oscar De La Hoya is counting on that but he's counting on something more too. He's counting on himself and that's a bet he hasn't lost very often.