One Short Right Good Night: Bob Arum: Manny Pacquiao's 'Never' Faced Shane Mosley's Style

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Bob Arum: Manny Pacquiao's 'Never' Faced Shane Mosley's Style

Filed under: WBC, WBO, Boxing Rumors, HBO, FanHouse Exclusive, Top Rank Promotions

During a November interview with FanHouse, former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins asserted that eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao never has faced a top-notch African-American boxer -- this despite the Filipino superstar's having vanquished non-American black fighters such as Joshua Clottey of Ghana and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba of South Africa.

Hopkins discounted the styles of Clottey and Ledwaba as not being as troublesome as those of black fighters from the United States, saying, "No, I'm talking about an inner city, American-born fighter who has the style of maybe a Floyd Mayweather or a Zab Judah or a Shane Mosley."

"That's why Floyd Mayweather would beat Manny Pacquiao," said Hopkins. "Because the styles that African-American fighters -- and I mean, black fighters from the streets or the inner cities -- would be successful."

So now, the 32-year-old Pacquiao (52-3-2, 38 knockouts) will defend his WBO welterweight (147 pounds) belt in an HBO pay-per-view televised bout against the 39-year-old Mosley (46-6-1, 39 KOs), even as his WBC junior middleweight (154 pounds) belt will not be on the line.

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Arum: Bernard Hopkins Can Pick Manny Pacquiao's Black Opponent

Pacquiao's selection of the aging Mosley has drawn criticism from the boxing community, but during a recent interview with Elie Seckbach of FanHouse, Top Rank Promotions' CEO, Bob Arum, used Hopkins' argument as a means of defending Mosley as an opponent.

"Manny Pacquiao, with all due respect, never has fought a fighter of the ability and the skill set of Mosley. Mosley is the epitome of an African American fighter with a style," said Arum.

"And even though he is a little on in age, he still has that style and he still has that punching power," said Arum. "And I, for one, am curious as to how Pacquiao deals with that type of style, which he hasn't faced before. That's the interesting part of this fight."