Over eight years since his most recent fight, Shane Mosley Sr. will return to the ring in two weeks’ time as the pound-for-pound legend seeks to roll back the years and prove that he has still got some of the skills that saw him become a three-division world champion.
After dominating as a lightweight champion in the 1990’s, Mosley stepped up to welterweight and was tasked with fellow superstar Oscar De La Hoya in a monumental battle in 2000. Mosley was able to edge out the contest and maintain his undefeated record with a split-decision win, earning the WBC welterweight crown – which he defended on three further occasions.
However, back-to-back defeats against Vernon Forrest spelled the end of the Californian’s first spell at welterweight and a rematch with De La Hoya ensued at 154lbs, where Mosley was able to best his rival once again to this time pick up the unified super-welterweight titles. Yet, in a similar fashion to the Forrest defeats, Mosley would suffer consecutive losses to Winky Wright and lose his belts.
Mosley would float between 147lbs and 154lbs for the remainder of his career and fight the biggest names in boxing, but he still managed to claim world honours by knocking out Antonio Margarito for the WBA welterweight strap before defeats to Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather in a tough run of four bouts without a win between 2010 and 2012.
In 2017, following defeat to David Avanesyan, Mosley hung up the gloves due to a botched elbow surgery, calling time on his phenomenal 24-year professional career and admitting that it was ‘surreal to learn that he could never fight again’, in an interview with ESPN.
“I went in for a minor arthroscopic surgery to remove a couple loose bone fragments from my elbow and the surgery turned into a whole ordeal after the surgeon admittedly ‘accidentally’ burned me on my forearm, leading to a sick infection and needing like four or five days of IV antibiotics and two weeks of antibiotics at home. It was crazy and surreal to learn that I could never fight again.”
However, eight years later it appears as though Mosley’s body has recovered enough to U-turn on that decision, as he fights in a light-heavyweight exhibition affair in Philadelphia against local boxing trainer Bob Kofroth under the Official Celebrity Boxing [OCB] banner.
Ahead of the event, CEO of OCB and former professional boxer, Damon Feldman, explained the importance of bringing events back to the area where he first learnt how to fight.
“Bringing this back to the Philadelphia area is very important to me. This is where I learned to fight, and I have wanted to bring the fights back to the place where I grew up for a very long time. It’s time to show Philadelphia what Official Celebrity Boxing is all about.”
Kofroth vs. Mosley will take place in The Event Center at the Harrah’s Casino in Philadelphia on Saturday September 28th, topping a bill which also features former WBO super-lightweight challenger Hank Lundy, as well as local rapper ‘Freeway’ and Kimbo Slice Jr., son of the fan-favourite martial-artist of the same name.
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