Mosley's last stand

While much of the media attention surrounding Saturday's boxing action will center around - and rightly so - the Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto junior middleweight title bout, I want to take a minute to applaud the efforts of "Sugar" Shane Mosley. In the co-feature bout at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the sure-fire Hall of Famer, now 40 years old, squared off against young rising champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, a 21-year-old Mexican who currently holds the WBC junior middleweight title. Alvarez won a unanimous decision to retain his title that he has now defended four times. Another focus of attention from the night's action will surround Alvarez, again rightly so. He is poised to be a dominant force in the sport for years to come. But, hopefully not lost in the coverage was the gritty performance by the aging veteran Mosley. After a sub par fight against Manny Pacquiao in May of last year, I wasn't expecting much from Mosley this time around. Boy, was I wrong. Mosley stood toe to toe with the powerful Alvarez for the entire 12 rounds. In my opinion, it was one of the best performances of Mosley's brilliant 19-year career. Despite being dominated - the score card read: 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110 all in favor of Alvarez - Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KOs) never backed down. It was clear that he didn't have the same speed and reflexes that were once his trademark, but to me that makes his showing all the more impressive. He could have easily backed off and played things safe, but instead he threw caution to the wind for one final last stand. Alvarez (40-0-1) landed 348 of 673 punches (52 percent). It was the most blows landed on Mosley in the 34 of his fights that CompuBox has tracked. If Saturday wasn't proof that Mosley, who has won five titles in three divisions, is among the sport's best, then nothing is. Until next time, I'm throwing in the towel.