Shane Mosley Shows His Age in Loss to David Avanesyan

There was a time when a Shane Mosley fight drew national attention. The boxing world would stop and converge wherever “Sugar Shane” was fighting. Arenas were always full. His pay-per-views did reasonably well. He had respect in and out of the ring. He was, and still very much is, one of the more likable personalities in a sport without many genuine figures.

There was never any doubt of that when it came to Mosley.

It’s probably why no one thought Mosley would still be fighting at the age of 44. No one that followed his career thought the future Hall of Famer would turn into the most-trite of boxing clichés—the has-been trying to resurrect a career that’s over.

Mosley’s most recent significant victory occurred seven years ago, when he stopped Antonio Margarito in nine, on January 24, 2009, to win the WBA welterweight title. Since then, he’s gone 3-4-1 over his next eight bouts.

Though there he was Saturday night looking in great shape against someone named David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs), for something called the “interim” WBA welterweight title, from the Gila River Arena, in Glendale, Arizona, before more than a healthy handful of empty seats.

Avanesyan won a unanimous 12-round decision, according to judge Raul Caiz Sr., who scored it close, 114-113, which was reasonable and most accurate of the three scorecards, while judges Sergio Caiz and Dennis O'Connell each had it 117-110 for Avanesyan, and was a little harder to accept.

Like it was hard to accept watching this fight, simply because you knew that if Mosley (49-10-1, 41 KOs) could step through a time machine and come out, circa 2000, he’d breath on Avanesyan and the Russian, who was fighting in the United States for the first time, would have toppled over.

Instead, someone like Avanesyan rocked Mosley temporarily with around 1:26 left in the fourth round, when he landed an overhand right that caught Mosley flush on his left cheek. By the fifth round, the left side of Mosley’s face was swollen. Left hooks, like the one Avanesyan cracked off Mosley’s face in the eighth, would have never touched a prime Shane Mosley, who was being trained by the legendary Roberto Duran.

“He was younger, he was a world champion and he was ready to fight,” Mosley said.

And then Mosley seemed to forget who he just fought.

Mosley’s chassis looked good, though one look under the hood and it’s where the ring wear of thousands of sparring rounds began to show. Both fighters had activity issues late. And Mosley stayed with the 27-year old in the championship rounds. With 1:41 left in the 10th round, referee Wes Melton deducted a point from Sugar Shane for a low blow. The point was taken from Mosley not only because it was low, but because Mosley was tiring.

He couldn’t lift his left high enough to get the punch over Avanesyan’s waistline (and it was a low shot, there was nothing controversial about it).

With less than a minute left in the 11th, Avanesyan landed a hard left body shot. The rest of the round Mosley held his right close to his ribs.

Mosley was arguable in the fight.

He dropped a right to Avanesyan’s body in the opening minute of the last round. Mosley countered with a big right. Avanesyan came back with a left hook. It was an entertaining fight.

And in the end, Mosley, in his typical classy way, put his arms around Avanesyan and told him, “Good fight.”

That’s what Avanesyan will be faced with next, when he fights the winner of the June 25th fight between Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

What he got Saturday night was an old man close to a decade past his prime. Not the real Shane Mosley.

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.