A Joy To Behold

In the early hours of the morning a star-studded crowd of celebrity A-Listers and boxing legends filled the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to witnessing Floyd 'Money' Mayweather deliver a boxing master-class. Having watched the fight, although not having intentionally stayed up to do so, I thought it made sense to write something about the contest.

Mayweather, 33, entered his 41st fight against 'Sugar' Shane Mosley, 38. Although Mayweather was inevitably the heavy favourite for the bout there had been many who were tipping the experienced Mosley, himself a three-weight world champion, to cause an upset.

The first round was tentative by both fighters but the fight soon exploded into life with an enthralling second round. Mosley not once but twice had the former five-weight world champion stumbling with a couple of big right-hands which had the whole building rocking. Mayweather looked like he could be visiting the canvas for the first time in his career but somehow managed to cling on to Mosley and find a way to get to the bell.

Hopes of an upset, however, were short-lived as the fight fell into a somewhat predictable trend. Mayweather regained his composure and started to find his rhythm. In the next few rounds Mayweather showed his supreme class and took the fight away from Mosley and even though the fight became one-sided it was still extremely entertaining to watch a master at work.

Mayweather was landing lightning fast combinations at will throughout the fight which Mosley looked helpless to avoid. As the bout wore on Mosley cut a frustrated and confused figure. He simply could not land a punch on Mayweather who showed why he had never even been knocked down. The speed and accuracy of Mayweather's punches combined with his evasive defence work were quite simply outstanding, a joy to behold.

By the second half of the fight the result was in little question. Although Mosley had shown that he had the power to hurt Mayweather he began to look like a beaten man as early as the 8th. His legs were tired, his punches were weak and his corner were threatening to stop the contest if he continued to take so much punishment. Mosley was allowed to fight on but nothing changed. As the bell sounded for the final round the image of Mayweather clinging on for deer life in the 2nd round already seemed like a distant memory. Mayweather glided around the ring landing punches with frightening regularity while Mosley offered little, even in the final exchanges.

At the end of the fight Mosley looked ready to collapse while Mayweather had hardly broken a sweat and looked like he could fight another 12 rounds. He had made a far from ordinary boxer look little more than average in a stunning boxing display. Despite being rocked in the 2nd he regained his composure and came back to win the fight with consummate ease. His defensive and offensive work was breath-taking and reiterated his supreme class for all of the boxing world. Such was the quality of Mayweather's display that even though the fight was far from even after the 3rd round it still made staying up till 6am worth it.

The loss is likely to bring an end to Mosley's glittering 52 fight career and leave boxing fans once again praying that a match-up between Mayweather and Pacquiao will go ahead. They are the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and in all honestly it seems a waste of time for them to fight anyone else, they are in a league of their own. This fight needs to happen, it needs to happen for both of their careers but more importantly to restore some credibility to the boxing world. Let's just hope they can get past the issue of blood testing and make the fight happen because if it went ahead it would promise to be the greatest showdown of this generation.

Thoughts, comments and opinions please...