LOS ANGELES (AFP) - American Shane Mosley claimed the World Boxing Association’s welterweight championship with a stunning ninth round demolition of Antonio Margarito.
Five-time world champion Mosley backed Margarito into his own corner early in the ninth round with a flurry of punches that caused Margarito’s trainer to throw in the towel.
Mosley landed a short right that sent Margarito reeling, and referee Raul Caiz stopped the fight 43 seconds into the round in front of a crowd of 20,820 at the Staples Center arena.
“I went into the fight thinking that my speed would be a factor,” Mosley said. “My speed was just too much for him.”
Mosley, who came into the fight a three-to-one underdog, showed Saturday that at 37 he remains a force in the welterweight division.
He upset the favoured Margarito in the same Staples Center arena where he won the World Boxing Council welterweight title with a victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2000.
“I did it again. Right here at Staples Center,” said Mosley. “It was a great night for me. I am always looking for the knockout.”
Mosley knocked Margarito down for the first time late in the eighth round with some devastating shots to the head. Margarito got up from the knockdown and stumbled backwards just before the bell ended the round.
Mosley showed he still has some of the quickest hands in the business.
While the 30-year-old Margarito was the aggressor and continued to come forward, he kept getting hit with body shots as well as head shots.
“Margarito is a big welterweight. He was fighting more straight up tonight. People go for his head a lot but I also tried to land body shots,” Mosley said.
It was a classic boxer versus brawler matchup and Mosley did most of his damage with combination punches while Margarito looked for the big punch.
“People underestimate my strength,” said Mosley, who had trouble making the weight. “I fight the big guys and I am able to knock them out. People just can’t understand that.”
Margarito’s game plan was to take a punch to land a punch and then impose his will on Mosley in the later rounds. It was the same game plan he used to upset Miguel Cotto six months ago for the title, but his time it failed.
Mosley wasted no time figuring out Margarito who was unable to defend against his smaller but faster opponent.
Both fighters exchanges jabs in the first two rounds before things heated up in the third.
Mosley dominated throughout the next six rounds as he came into the fight with a game plan and stuck with it. Right from the opening bell he was able to slip inside Margarito’s jab and land hard short punches.
In the final three rounds, Mosley loaded up with powerful overhand rights that snapped Margarito’s head back.
“I knew he would be looking for my left hand because I have been so successful with it in my last few fights,” said Mosley. “I am equally powerful with both hands.”
Trainer Nazim Richardson said all the hard work they put in paid off as Mosley fought the perfect fight.
“We knew Margarito was a special fighter so we put a special game plan together,” Richardson said. “Mosley is an excellent student.”
Mosley’s preprations for the bout have been dogged by doping questions.
The New York Daily News reported in December that Mosley had admitted to a grand jury that he took EPO and used BALCO steroid products prior to winning a 2003 rematch against de la Hoya.
Mosley, who has denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs, said the doping questions may have given him added incentive.
“I think it did motivate me a little bit,” he said.
This was Margarito’s first defence of his 147-pound title.
“I just kept getting caught with hard rights,” said Margarito who did not attend the post-fight news conference.
Mosley said he would like to fight Cotto next.
“I want Cotto,” Mosley said. “That is the next big fight. This was a mega fight, and I want to fight the mega fights.”
Commentator Reg Gutteridge dies
Reg Gutteridge, the legendary boxing commentator and journalist, has died after a short illness.He was 84.
An amateur boxer as a youngster, Gutteridge turned to journalism after losing a leg when he stepped on a mine at Normandy during the Second World War.
He worked for the Evening News as its boxing correspondent for 40 years. But he made his name as ITV’s voice of boxing, later forming a commentating partnership with former world lightweight champion Jim Watt. The pair later moved to Sky.
Awarded an OBE in 1995, London-born Gutteridge also covered six Olympic Games.
Such was his popularity within boxing that he struck up friendships with many fighters. During the 1980s, when ill in hospital, Muhammad Ali was among the visitors.
In 2002 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Gutteridge, who lived in Barnet, passed away yesterday. He leaves a wife, daughter and four grandsons.
His daughter Sally said: “He was a much-loved husband, father and grandfather. He touched many lives.”