Mosley would’ve won a decision but he went for the spectacular instead.
Ricardo Mayorga is a wild man and a wild (if not disliked) personality with a reckless and chaotic style of fighting. While he had a memorable pair of wins against the late Vernon Forrest, most of Mayorga’s biggest fights ended in losses. We’re going to look back at one he had against Shane Mosley on September 27th, 2008.
You see, Mosley is/was one of the more brilliant and crafty boxer-punchers of his generation. Mayorga likes to street fight. Maybe his calling was to be in MMA this entire time and not just after he washed out as a boxer. What transpired was something of a match that had a lot of action but also a lot of sloppiness. A brilliant Mosley sixth round showed the gulf in class between the two.
In round 12, Mosley closed things out in style. A massive combination that was capped off by a left hook and right hand put Mayorga on the canvas. Mayorga beat the count and was allowed to continue with just two seconds to go in the fight. Mosley uncorked one vicious left hook to drop Mayorga for a second time and get a buzzer-beating KO. Not Shane’s best work and not his best weight class at 154 lbs, but certainly a glimpse of what made him great.
You can watch the highlights at the top of the page, or if you’re horribly impatient go to the seven-minute mark to see the end of it. Mosley would’ve won a decision but somehow judge Pat Russell had Mayorga ahead entering Round 12, which made absolutely no sense.
These two rematched in 2015 as absolute shells of their former selves, but with the two of them doing this pre-fight. Mayorga lost by sixth-round KO and as of 2019 his record stands at 32-12-1-1 NC (26 KOs) and presumably he’ll stay retired. Unfortunately he’s run into some trouble on the streets in recent times in his home country of Nicaragua. Mosley (49-10-1-1 NC, 41 KOs) retired in 2017 after a comeback fight was called off due to injury. He has already been selected as a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.