SUGAR SHANE MOSLEY AND SERGIO MORA CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT

Posted on | September 13, 2010 | No Comments

Kelly Swanson

Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. For the past several weeks, we have been hosting a variety of conference calls with a lot of fighters that are going to be participating in next Saturday, a week from Saturday’s Mosley vs. Mora “200: Celebrate and Dominate” from Staples Center live on HBO Pay-Per-View. But this is the call we’ve all been waiting for because we are fortunate enough today to have the main event of that show on the phone with us. As your alert mentioned, joining us right now is Sergio Mora and his trainer, Dean Campos.

Before we get to them and for the introductions, I’d like to introduce Richard Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions.

Richard Schaefer

Welcome, everybody, and thank you so much to be on today’s call. I look forward seeing you all in a little bit more than a week here in Los Angeles. It is going to be a great card when five time and three divisional world champion, Sugar Shane Mosley will go in the ring against Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora, a former world champion himself in the junior middleweight of 154. As we all know we will have the Mexican star, Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez on the card as well against Carlos “Tata” Baldomir, a former world champion and “Vicious” Victor Ortiz fighting the other vicious guy, Vivian Harris and a very exciting barn burner is going to be the opening bout of the pay-per-view card, which is going to be former world champion, Daniel Ponce de León against number two world rated featherweight Antonio Escalante of El Paso, Texas. So four televised fights-four great fights-very fitting for this great 200 year bicentennial celebration of the Mexican Independence.

It’s going to be the official Mexican bicentennial celebration in Los Angeles. The Mexican Consulate is very heavily involved. It is marketed through all of the Mexican channels and reach the different platforms from the Mexican Consulate. Sponsored by Cerveza Tecate, DeWalt Tools and AT&T, the live HBO pay-per-view will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific.

Tickets quickly, starting at $20, $75, $125 and $200 and yes, you did hear right, $20 to see a card like that at the number one facility, and I’m not just making that up. It was actually ranked number one sport facility in Southern California, the Staples Centers here in downtown Los Angeles. For $20, tickets are going fast. We had to open the upper deck. So we do expect a capacity crowd do be at hand to be part of this great weekend.

The fight will be shown in movie theatres again as well. More than 300 select movie theatres nationwide will show the entire card and locations that you can check on www.fathomevents.com. The fight week kicks off this Sunday with the Mexican Bicentennial Parade in East LA, which is one of the events where the fighters will be participating in as well. We really are going to see throughout the week, throughout that 200 week, 200 year anniversary week, activities like we have never done. We’ve never seen on any other pay-per-view before.

There will be, in fact, a special Fiesta de la Independencia, which will begin on Friday, September 17th in front of the Staples Centers part of the L.A. Live structure at noon. It will be a two day celebration of the Mexican Bicentennial, which will feature live fights with Solo Boxeo Tecate on Friday night. It will host the official Mosley/Mora weigh-in. It will host special autograph sessions with some of the boxing legends we have invited. I’m happy to report that they have accepted-the 20 or so, our biggest Mexican stars of all time will be at hand in Los Angeles and will be part of that Fiesta de la Independencia where fans can go and meet them and greet them and get autographs.

There will be live music, sponsor activations, a lot of booths and exhibits, Mexican themed concessions will be provided by the number one restaurant in Los Angeles, the only three star Michelin restaurant group here in southern California, the Patina Restaurant group. There will be a beer garden and much more, including live concerts on Friday right following the Solo Boxeo Tecate shows will be the legendary Mexican band, Conjunto Primavera.

All that by the way Solo Boxeo and concert and so on, tickets are priced at $10, $10 to be part of the fiesta de la Independencia. Again, we really want to encourage all fight fans and all fans, music fans and so on to be part of that big celebration downtown LA.

Now, though, let’s move on to the main event here with Mosley and Mora. It is a pleasure now to introduce to you, Dean Campos, the head trainer for Sergio Mora to make some opening comments on how training camp has been going.

Dean Campos

Hello, everybody. Training camp is going great. Everything I expected from Sergio, he’s come through. All of sparring partners came through on everything we wanted them to do. Everything is great, it’s fabulous.

Schaefer

Before I’m going to introduce Sergio Mora, I do want to acknowledge as well Cameron Dunkin, who is Sergio Mora’s manager. We have recently started the relationship with Cameron, actually with Kirkland and then Mora and soon other fighters. It’s a pleasure to work with Cameron and his attorney as well, Michael Miller. They make quite a team.

Now it is a pleasure for me to introduce to you with a record of 22 and 1 and 1 draw, six KOs from east LA, California, the former Junior Middleweight World Champion. We all know he was a big hit on TV as well when he won The Contender. He’s one of the most recognized names. Whenever I’m with him, I see people come up to him, even non-boxing fans. He really is the kind of guy who has broken through outside of the boxing world as well, but now he has this tremendous opportunity and I can tell you he will be ready.

A couple weeks ago he came to visit me here in the office. We talked a bit. I can assure you Sergio Mora is coming to win. We know that he has what it takes to become world champion because he’s done it before. The question now is can he do what other greats of Mexican descent-De La Hoya, Vargas and Margarito-have failed to do on Mexican Independence Day weekend, defeat the legendary Sugar Shane Mosley.

Believe me, guys, Sergio Mora will be ready. Anybody who underestimates and including Mosley, which sometimes I have the feeling he does, they’re going to be in for a true shocker.

It’s a pleasure for me to introduce to you Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora.

Sergio Mora

What an introduction, Richard, thank you very much. I appreciate that and good afternoon, gentlemen, everybody, good afternoon. Without questions, I just want to say a quick little statement that I’m really excited for this opportunity. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that things happen for a reason. I’m a firm believer of destiny. Deano is not a man of many words, but if you’re part of the circle, if you’re part of the team, you can’t shut the guy up. He believes the same thing that I do. That stars align for a reason and things are meant to be when they’re meant to happen.

This 200th Anniversary that Richard was talking about, it’s just the stars aligning for me to have another opportunity to fight another Hall of Famer, another great, great fighter and champion in Sugar Shane Mosley. On a big weekend where me and him are headlining and in our home town on such prestigious weekend, it can’t get any bigger than that. HBO, the biggest network in boxing televising it and it’s very exciting. It does not get any bigger than this.

So, of course, I’m very prepared. I’m very focused. I know what I need to do. I have one loss on my career and it took a great fighter like Vernon Forrest to catch me on a weak night to finally beat me. I think I’ve been inactive because of the situation I was in with the contract of The Contender and the television side of everything.

Once that got handled and we came to a conclusion with The Contender, I met with every big promoter and Golden Boy was the way to go. Richard Schaefer said everything that he was going to do for me and he kept his promise. Now it’s time for me to keep mine. It’s sink or swim and I’m an excellent swimmer. I welcome the opportunity. I’m very, very, very happy and grateful for everyone and everything that’s happened and God bless.

Schaefer

Now we would like to open it to the members of the media for any questions you might have for Dean Campos or for Sergio Mora or myself.

Sergio, Shane has said in a radio interview recently that it’s a privilege for you to be fighting, now it will be two Hall of Fame fighters and it could lead you to some bigger fights. Where do you see it leading you from here?

Mora

Well, that’s my manager, my team and that’s Richard Schaefer’s job and I mean hopefully the best. I mentioned that to my last fight on the Hopkins and Jones undercard that I think I’m in a position where I’ve matured mentally and physically as a man and as a fighter. It took a lot. It took a lot for me to finally get to that position. I think I’m really literally ready for the best at junior middleweight or middleweight, whether that’s going to be Margarito or Floyd Mayweather, or Paul Williams or Sergio Martinez, or now we’re talking about Pirog or even Kelly Pavlik.

I’m ready for the absolute best. Right now I have to focus on Shane Mosley, who is a big threat to me. I obviously have to concur that before I start thinking of other things.

Richard had gone over your record. You only have one career loss and to the future Hall of Famer, Vernon Forrest. Do you feel that you should be just in much of a demand as some of these other fighters who are undefeated or just once defeated fighters? Do you think you should be at their level as well?

Mora

Of course, I need to be, but see, everything in business is part of a plan. If you’re not with that team, you’re not going to be included in things like that. I think in the contract I was in with the people I was with, with The Contender, they didn’t really work well with other promoters. They didn’t put on their own shows. So, we’re excluded from the networks and those big days. Now that I’m part of the best promotion team in boxing, in Golden Boy, they have all the political muscle. They have the days and they have the talent. I just need to prove myself that I belong in those days.

Having a squeaky clean record is one thing, but you have to show up on fight night and do what you’re supposed to do and that’s entertain the crowd and be an excellent fighter. By doing that September 18th, I’m going to have a hell of a chance of doing that in the future with the bigger opponents and the bigger days.

You talked a little bit on your introductory remarks about the inactivity and those issues that you had with your previous promotional contract. I know there were other fights that have come up, whether it was the Jermain Taylor fight, which never came off, or a fight like you, I believe, had with Kassim Ouma that had been scheduled that go cancelled through no fault of your own. I just wonder if you take a look back at all the stuff that happened from the post Contender time until now you find yourself in this position to be involved in a fairly significant fight, are you the type of person that looks at that and says everything happened for reason and you’re here now because of all of that? Do you have thoughts about what would have been had you fought Ouma that night, or taken the opportunity to fight Taylor for the middleweight title?

Mora

Of course, I believe in destiny. Me and Dean always believe in destiny. I remember way before The Contender I was supposed to fight on NBC, my first nationally televised fight against another undefeated guy. A week before that fight, I got cut sparring and that fight had to be cancelled. This guy ended up upsetting another undefeated guy. From that point on, we always wondered that things are meant to be.

Who was that, Sergio?

Mora

Deano, can you remember who that was? I was 9 and 0 and I believe the other guy was like 13 and 0. I ended up fighting a guy named Les Ralston on NBC a year afterwards who was 13 and 0. But the guy I was going to fight, he’s an African American and he beat another undefeated fighter. Dean, who was it?

Campos

I think that he was Mexican.

Mora

He didn’t amount to nothing, so. I probably couldn’t remember. But the bottom line is I’ve had a lot of ups and downs from cancelled fights and injuries. Even as an amateur, I’ve had a lot of letdowns. But I can’t complain about my success either because I’ve had a lot of blessings and I think everything happens for a reason. I’m a firm believer of destiny. If you watched The Contender, I mentioned the book The Alchemist and everything that happens to Santiago in that book. I really feel that my life turned out something like what Santiago parallel and a lot of people. And that’s the reason for people to relate. There’s ups and downs in life and that’s how a boxing career is. The epitome of a fighter is to be just that. We just have to keep fighting.

What about, if there are any, I’m not sure if there are, about the regrets about having possibly having had the opportunity back at the time to fight for the middleweight title and then not taking that, but other things coming along. You ended up getting the fight with Vernon Forrest after that and winning a world championship.

Mora

Obviously, you can never judge something until the end of our career. Right now it still seems like maybe it was mistake. My team, and Dino will tell you now that he’s on the line, it wasn’t all my decision. It was actually Dino’s decision, John’s decision, my team’s decision not to fight Jermain in Memphis. We had agreed to fight in LA and other places. But it was a team decision and I listened to them. I would have taken that fight. I feel that I could have beat him, but that’s in the past. We never know if it’s going to be a mistake.

If I would have beat him that night, think about it. … won that night and he didn’t get the credit he deserved because he basically made it a close decision, but no one respected that. They just forgot about him and that’s what I think what would have happened to me. I would have gave him a good fight and then I would have lost the decision and they would have pushed me aside.

Dean, going into this fight, where you’re preparing Sergio to fight Shane Mosley, have you done much looking at his previous fight with Mayweather? I know Sergio and Floyd are very different fighters obviously. But have you looked at that fight? If so, do you see a much slower or a fighter that can’t throw as many punches as he once did than Mosley. What do you see when you look at that video of him and perhaps the fact that maybe age has caught up to him a little bit?

Campos

No, I don’t think age caught up to him. I just think that inactivity and I have my own thoughts on what happened to him that night. And I think maybe one, but I really don’t have to say it here. I just think that the inactivity, the style that Mayweather has is a frustrating style. Mosley like to fight and Floyd is the type of guy that takes the fight out of the fight.

So he’s constantly throwing water on you every time you want to start a fire. I think it’s frustrating for a guy like Mosley who just he fights with his hands. I’m not saying that he’s not a smart fighter because he is. But he’s a very aggressive thinking fighter and Mayweather is just the opposite. He just feeds off of the little weaknesses you have and he fights in those small little spaces and he throws you off the game.

That could happen to anybody. I think if they fought again to be honest with you, Mosley would be prepared. I think he’s the type of fighter you have to fight twice to understand him. You get in there once, you fall behind and you’re pretty much done when you fall behind against him because you’re not going to catch him in the end. I think that’s what happened a little bit because we’re going to see that one where he fought against Margarito. That’s the guy we’re going to see.

Yes, I studied it. Basically, honestly that’s the fight I least study.

The Margarito or the Mayweather?

Campos

The Mayweather. That’s the one I study the least. I look at all his younger days and when he was 28, 29, 30 and he was beating guys like Oscar and he was a fighting-the earlier fights in his career. Those are the guys I look at and I sort of look at what he does. I’m impressed with what I see and hopefully we can defuse him a little bit and do some things that he’s not too comfortable with. But yes, that’s what I was looking at.

Shane Mosley was quoted recently as saying that boxing desperately needs the biggest fights and they need the biggest fights to happen. And absolutely no disrespect to you, but this fight has been criticized by a lot of writers as maybe not exactly the headliner match-up that people want to see, especially as a pay-per-view. How do you respond to that?

Mora

A fight is just that, a fight. You can never expect what’s going to happen. The biggest fight this year has been Mosley and Mayweather. I don’t know if you were there, but after the second round, it was like a boring fight. So that was a mega-fight, but I didn’t think I was at a mega-fight being there. So people can criticize mega-fights or they could criticize this fight. But if they end up seeing a great fight that night, then opinions change.

I think styles make fights. Like Deano was saying, it’s going to be a hard task to defuse a bomb like Mosley. But that’s what we’re going to have to do to find some way to beat this guy and come out the winner. It’s going to be a hard task because this guy comes to knock everyone out. It’s going to be an exciting night because fireworks are going to happen if I can’t defuse his bomb. Because then that means that I’m going to have to go in there and battle with this guy and turn it into a war and that’s what will happen.

So we know as a fighter, Shane likes to come in and mix it up and go toe to toe. Is that something that you feel that you need to do in this fight to make it an exciting fight?

Mora

I usually feed off of my opponents. I’m a defensive minded fighter that fights with adrenaline and passion. I also like to throw punches in bunches and in speed and combinations. I think Shane Mosley concentrates more on boxer punching and really putting some good power and leverage behind shots like he did against Antonio Margarito, who I’ve been sparring for ten years. I can tell you, you think he has cement in his hands, he has cement in his head and in his chin. I’ve been sparring him for over ten years and to knock that guy out or to hurt that guy is a task in itself. I definitely know this man can punch.

I just need to fight smart and I can’t let him to take the lead. This is going to be a dance and I got to be the leader. I have to be the one setting the pace. I’m the one that’s going to control the action.

Do you think this is a must win for you? Do you consider this a must win?

Mora

When do I have the leisure of a loss? I think when you’re talking to a fighter, they’re always scared to death to lose. They have a lot of pride and they don’t want that embarrassment. Nothing else matters but to win. It’s a must win. Every fight for me is a must win. Whenever things go well for me in camp and I have no excuses like I did for this camp, I really feel that I can beat the best. So this is just another opportunity for me to prove that.

I just want to quickly add something here what was asked about mega-fight compared to this fight. The fact is not every NFL game is the Super Bowl and not every NBA game is the Finals. Not every NHL game is for the Stanley Cup. So I think what we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to put together attractive cards, which are well matched and which really present a lot of storylines. I think the storyline in this particular card top to bottom, frankly, is that when people have their backs against the wall, that’s when they become dangerous.

He asked as well must win night, like for Sugar Shane Mosley coming off the loss against Mayweather, it is a must win night, especially you’re 39 years old. It is a must win night. It is for same for Carlos Palomino. If he wants to turn back the clock and become relevant again as a world champion and being in big fights, this is his opportunity to that. This is his last chance.

The same is true for “Vicious” Vivian Harris, an opportunity to fight young Victor Ortiz. He will do whatever it takes to come and try to win that fight. So this is what I mean. These are guys which have their back against the wall and who will come out fighting.

In your career, you have a victory over the late Vernon Forrest who held earlier in his career two victories over Shane Mosley. Now obviously styles make fights and you just can’t make an easy comparison over that. But how much does that victory in your first fight with Vernon Forrest to help you in preparing for this fight with Shane Mosley?

Mora

The first fight with Vernon, I was very well prepared. I had a ten week camp and I fought in the weight division where I had never fought before. I made that weight strong and confident and obviously I took the title away from him and surprised everybody, including him. The second fight was put together at last minute, one we did in five weeks and obviously I was depleted and shot and lost the title. But those 24 rounds with Vernon Forrest were the most educational experience that I’ve ever been through as a professional. I’m the only man that can say that they went 24 rounds with such a great fighter as Vernon and snatch a win from him.

So, of course, I have the confidence of knowing that I can go 12 rounds with the best, one of the best, and dish it out and take it. I know Shane Mosley is one of the best again. So I’m looking at him knowing that I beat the guy that beat him. That gives me confidence, of course. But then I bring myself back to earth and say styles make fights. I have to watch out for this guy because he can knock me out in the first round or he can do what he did with Mayorga and knock him on the last 10 seconds of the 12th round. There’s no relaxing like with a warrior like Shane.

I value and I appreciate and honor everything that is involved with this fight. This is what boxing is all about. This is the epitome of two guys, one at the later part of his career and one that just is hungry to break through. So it’s the circle of life all over again.

How do you think the weight factor will work in this fight since you’ve been usually fighting at weights one to two with sometimes more higher than Shane Mosley has been fighting at?

Mora

I have two fights like junior middleweight and then I have the rest of my career at 160. Like I told Richard in the beginning of 2010 when I signed with Golden Boy that I can make 154 pounds if given nine to ten weeks. If I bring in my strength and nutritionist in Robert Ferguson, I was given more than ten weeks for this fight and I’m making the weight very, very strong, confident and easily for this fight. So no excuses, I’m ready to go at 154.

Swanson

Thank you, Sergio and Dean. Now I believe we have Mr. Mosley and Mr. Richardson on the call.

Schaefer

Team Mosley led his trainer Naazim Richardson doesn’t really need much introduction. We all know that Naazim Richardson is one of the most gifted and best trainers today in the sport of boxing. He is preparing Sugar Shane Mosley again for this task at hand. He knows as he told me, he knows what Sergio Mora is coming to win. He knows, he understands the game. He understands boxing. He knows what’s at stake. I know that he is not taking Sergio Mora lightly.

But it’s a pleasure for me now to hand it over to Naazim Richardson who can make the opening remarks and talk a little bit about camp.

Richardson

I’d like to thank everybody that’s on board now. I appreciate the time and the effort for everybody to put this call together, Kelly and her staff and Golden Boy and everybody that’s involved. I’d like to thank you all and the Mora camp in itself.

As Richard just said so, I always thought the Mora was taken lightly in the sport of boxing. I never really thought he got his due. He’s an incredible athlete. I’ve known him since the amateurs. I knew coming into this task, I was asking Shane, this was one thing about the weight. I was asking Shane, the first thing I ask him was why are you fighting the middleweight. Yes, okay, we know that Paul Williams can make welterweight. It doesn’t make you a welterweight because you can make a weight.

I said why are you fighting a middleweight. The guy’s arm span, his range, his height and everything is middleweight. I said this is a middleweight fighting a welterweight. I said bottom line, so I spoke to Shane about it early and he made the decision that that’s Shane Mosley. He’s a gladiator. He always has been. He’s going to fight. Other guys sit around and talk about what they’re going to do and be braggadocios about their skills. This guy is work. This guy is right back in the camp, not whining, not complaining. We push him. He’s accepting it. He’s adhering to the work. He’s an incredible human being like I said he could just fight his behind off.

So I know Sergio Mora and guys like Mora and these guys, they grew up watching Shane Mosley. They’re exceptionally motivated. Shane is the reason a lot of these guys are boxing. Some of the kids he’s fighting now, he’s one of the reasons they’re even boxing. They grew up sitting in front of the television watching him, wanting to do the things and become to the status that he is. So this is something I always tell Shane mentally you have to be prepared for. That even when you hit these guys, these guys are going to respond back because this is their moment in the light. I mean, they’re boxing Shane Mosley. I never thought Miguel Cotto was the same athlete after he got at Shane Mosley. He exhaled because all mountains had been climbed.

So I’m looking at Sergio Mora in the same light. This guy is coming. He’s bringing the best. He has a great team leading. He’s an outstanding athlete and again, I have to prepare my welterweight to beat a middleweight. It’s the bottom line. That’s what it becomes. I don’t want to hear about hard making the weight and all that. This is middleweight fighting a welterweight. I had a middleweight fighter and I’d have challenged any welterweight in the world with my middleweight fighter. I have to look at it for that preparation and Shane Mosley is an exceptional welterweight. So I think we’re up for the task. I really believe we’re up for this task.

Schaefer

Before I’m going to introduce Shane Mosley, I want to wish him as well a happy birthday. Last week was his birthday. He turned 39 and he keeps on amazing us. We all know outside of the ring, what a great person he is. But inside the ring, he just keeps amazing us. People count him out. I remember following the fight with Mayorga, he in Los Angeles at the Home Depot Center, a lot of people said I think we’ve seen the end of Shane. Then he turned back the clock and he just dominated, destroyed Margarito here at Staples Center. He’s coming back to Staples Center. The two biggest wins of his career, the de la Hoya win and the Margarito win both came from Staples Center.

So Sugar Shane Mosley always finds a way to turn back the clock and win. He knows and I told him how dangerous and how motivated Sergio Mora is. So we will see this legend again displaying his craft, his skills, the total package, defense, offense, speed, combinations and here in downtown Los Angeles in a little bit more than a week.

It really is a please for me to introduce to you my friend, Sugar Shane Mosley with a record of 46 and 6, 39 KOs from Pomona, California and coming back here next week to Staples Center.

Sugar Shane Mosley

Thank you. I’m getting younger. I’m getting ready to go into this match with Sergio Mora. I’ve prepared very well. I think the camp, Naazim Richardson, all the sparring partners, Karl Dargin and Rock Allen. All the sparring partners are in with me and helping me to prepare for this fight. It’s been great. I’m excited and ready to go for battle September 18th at the Staples Center. Coming back to the Staples Center is going to be a great match, a great night of fighting. Believe me, I’ve prepared myself very well for this fight.

So, I guess, thank you, all the writers and the fans and everybody that’s out there. Thank you for following in this sport. Thank you, if there are any questions.

What I’d like to know from you, Shane, is after the fight with Mayweather, I know you weren’t really contemplating retirement, but to get with Richard and everybody and say, “Time to get back in the ring. Let me go do this,” and really commit yourself to going back into another training camp again.

Mosley

I’m not really sure when the timeframe was, but I knew right away that I wanted to go back into the ring and fight again. Two days, three days later, I was in I think Houston. I was in the gym.

Three days later you said?

Mosley

Yes, three or four days later I was in the gym in Houston, I think, working out. I’m sorry, when I arrive in Houston, I think it was, I’m not sure how many days it was, but right when I landed in Houston, I was already training in the gym and sparring with the kids and working on my son on his skills and stuff. So I went right to the gym.

I know there was a bunch of stuff that had been thrown around about a possible fights. What was your thought, and I don’t know how exactly it came up to you when the name Sergio Mora was brought to your attention. I know you’re familiar with him. He’s obviously another fighter with Golden Boy and had fought your rival, Vernon Forrest, two times. But what was your thought when that name was brought to you, as opposed to any of the other variety of possibilities, whether it was Andre Berto or whoever?

Mosley

First, it was Andre Berto. We gone through a little thing where it was 50/50 split, then it turned to 52/48. It thought a fight at Staples Center would be a great fight for me and Sergio Mora brought to me by Richard. I took to it and I agreed. I said yes, I think this would be a great fight at Staples Center. A guy from East LA, he’s the only one to beat Vernon Forrest, he beat Vernon Forrest once. I never beat him. It would be a good little fight at STAPLES Center. So, we took it and ran with it.

I know that some of the guys have questioned Sergio before your part of the call started about the total need for definitely a victory because we know where he’s coming from in his situation. You have yourself who just lost a fight to Floyd Mayweather. A second loss in a row to Sergio Mora, who is a very good fighter, of course, but certainly not on the level of Floyd Mayweather in most people’s eyes would be a significant setback to your career, particularly given you just had another birthday. What are your thoughts about the significance of a victory?

Mosley

Yes, it could be a setback. Fighting a bigger guy and a guy is strong and can fight. Some fans take it for granted that this guy is a little bigger. He’s also fast. He works very hard. He’s a competitor. He loves to win. He only lost one time and that’s to Vernon Forrest in his whole career. So he can fight. So I think people are mistaken that and thinking that it’s just going to be a walk in the park when it’s really not.

Have you addressed your own situation with Naazim what the reasons where, why what happened in the Floyd fight after round two where you just seemed to lack the energy. How have you assured yourself that come rounds three through 12, I guess, then, if it gets that far, that you’re still going to be able to have the punch output and do the kind of things offensively that you’ve always been accustomed to doing?

Mosley

Well, with the Floyd fight, it wasn’t that I was tired. It was just that my neck was a little tight and I couldn’t throw any more punches like I wanted to. If I’m fighting the second round and I make it to the twelfth round, then that says that I obviously wasn’t that tired. If I can go two more rounds after the second round, so something else happened in that fight and that’s what happened. I just got a little tight, and I couldn’t throw the punches like I wanted to. I can assure you that that won’t happen again. I’m sure Naazim would say the same thing that it won’t happen again.

If you win, we’re going to get a rematch with Shaquille O’Neill. Just joking.

Mosley

Definitely. I want a rematch with Shaquille.

Naazim, earlier Mora’s trainer had said that Mayweather was fighter you may need to fight maybe twice to figure him out. Do you think that if Mosley was able to get a second fight with Mayweather, he would do better than he did last time?

Richardson

Well, that’s a great question, but it’s answered already by every trainer. Any missed opportunity, we want another shot at it. We’ve love to have another chance, but we know that a lot of opportunities come once in a lifetime. If you show what a bad night, they may not come back around. So like I said, yes, I would love to see.

I think that the round robin is real always. When you saw Duran beat Leonard, we saw Duran beat Leonard and then you saw Hagler beat Duran. But then you saw Leonard come back and beat Hagler. The round robin is still well alive, and I believe that round robin is consistent of Mayweather to Pacquiao to Shane Mosley. It’s going to be necessary to see all of these guys fight.

To add on to your comment, I believe a guy like, even like with the Margarito thing coming, I believe that until you beat Margarito, I don’t write nobody in for beating Margarito until he’s beaten, until somebody physically goes up there and beats him. You’re not just going to tell me this guy beat him, so that guy will beat him. Shane Mosley has always answered that call. Guys who have beaten guys who have beaten him, Shane Mosley has come back and knocked some of those guys out.

Shane, you’ve had success at the Staples Center. Do you actually feel that having success in a particular venue can actually help a fighter?

Mosley

Yes, it’s always good to come back home and do some fights, especially like at the Staples Center. Being that Sergio Mora is also from East LA and from the area as well, he likes fighting at home as well. He had a lot of his victories at the Staples Center as well. So this is going to be a night where both fighters have had great successes at the Staples Center.

Shane, you mentioned the fight with Mayweather and you having problems that you couldn’t get the punches off later in the rounds. That fight was very reported in depth, had the Olympic style blood testing. Did that have any negative affects on you at all?

Mosley

Not at all. I think it was actually a great thing to have because I learned through the USADA that taking all those like vitamins take a lot of vitamins and stuff like that for your fight, so no, it was actually a good thing.

Now in this fight, you’re going to be going off to fight-and Naazim mentioned that earlier-some of those generally fought at higher weight classes than you. What adjustments are you going to have to make and do you think that could pose any problems for you since it seems at welterweight, you had so much success there?

Mosley

I don’t know. It might pose us a problem, and that’s the reason why we take the fight. It’s not just an easy fight like people want to say. It’s a hard fight. This guy has come down from middleweight to junior middleweight. I’m going up to junior middleweight. He’s going to be carrying a … in the ring. So it makes it that much more challenging to get the knock-out and to fight somebody of this caliber.

What are you doing to avoid overlooking him, because some people have said because of your record and his overall record and everyone saying obviously you’re going to be a future Hall of Famer. It’s certainly a question whether he will. What are you doing to make sure you don’t overlook this guy because he sounds very confident and very hungry because this is a great opportunity for him?

Mosley

I know that he’s very confident and very hungry, so that’s what’s making me not overlook him. I know that he’s coming to win. This is will be a big feather in his cap. So I have to train very hard and make sure that I’m doing all the right things. I think it helps having a lot of young fighters in the gym with me working with me that are real hungry as well to keep me focused. So I think that’s a good strategy by Naazim Richardson to bring a lot of young fighters in to have them spar with me.

You are 39 now, how long do you see yourself going? Do you see yourself being more a Bernard Hopkins type of guy who can stay in great shape and take care of his body and be still fighting at the age of 44, 45? Or can you see the end from here?

Mosley

Well, it’s evident that I see myself, I can go to 45 or 46, 47 if I want to. But it just depends on how I feel if I do it. I keep myself in great shape all the time regardless if I have a fight coming up or not. I think that’s why I’m able to fight at this level of competition for so long.

Will you know when it’s time?

Mosley

Yes, I’ll definitely know what it’s time to hang up the gloves. Right now it’s definitely not the time. I feel great and I’m in great shape. I love the sport of boxing. I love the excitement. I love the challenge.

You still have a lot of fighters you’d like to face at this point.

Mosley

There’s a few fighters out there right now that I can face. Margarito and Pacquiao are getting ready to fight each other. I can do a rematch of Margarito or I could fight Pacquiao. There’s Cotto still out there. He has a belt at junior middleweight. That’s a rematch that I would love to take.

Also, a Floyd Mayweather rematch. Like Naazim said, that wasn’t my night. Sometimes you have bad nights and there’s nothing you can do about it. Floyd did a great job, he won the fight. He survived a knock-out and won the fight, so he did a great job. But that’s four guys out there I could fight.

Would you prefer to go back to welterweight or stay at 154 or what?

Mosley

It doesn’t really matter, 54, 47, anywhere in that range, anywhere in that fight range is my territory, so I can do that.

You just mentioned Miguel Cotto as a possibility for a rematch in the future. Now what are your chances of if you come out victorious in this upcoming fight, and if Miguel finally decides to fight in December, that next year, we’ll see that rematch. Also what can you tell me if you saw Miguel fighting at 154 last June?

Mosley

Yes, I watched the fight that he had in June and he did very good. He looked actually a little better than I’ve seen him. He looks more comfortable at 154. So I think that the type of guy that he’s fighting, he’s fighting he looks real good with and definitely have a fight with him in December if Bob can make that match, then it will help make the match, I should say, then, definitely we’ll take that in December. Like I said, there’s big fights out there and I’m prepared to do them.

Schaefer

Thank you, Shane, thank you, Sergio, for taking the time and thank you to the trainers as well, Naazim and Dean. If you have to summarize the whole thing, this whole card it really is the best pay-per-view weekend traditionally every year. It is this year especially so, we’re celebrating 200 years of Mexican independence from the largest Hispanic center in the United States in downtown Los Angeles.

The second one is it’s a must win situation for the fighters on this card. So there’s so much at stake. Certainly and really very important is the ticket prices. Great events planned for the whole week, Friday night, Solo Boxeo Tecate and the famous legendary Mexican band, Conjunto Primavera, which usually sells out 20,000, 30,000 seats venues. They are going to be in downtown Los Angeles, a special event hosted by Golden Boy for $10. For $10 you’re going to be able to see Solo Boxeo Tecate and Conjunto Primavera.

Then at Staples Center the next day with “Sugar” Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora and Saúl Álvarez and everyone for $20-I have in all those years we’ve been promoting and Golden Boy, the last 10 years or so-I have never, ever seen an event quite like that. So I urge everyone to come downtown in LA to be part of the festivities and enjoy the great atmosphere and the great fights that we will be putting on. See you all next week. Thank you.

END OF CALL

“200: CELEBRATE AND DOMINATE” is headlined by Five-Time World Champion Sugar Shane Mosley facing off against former World Champion Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora and also features Mexican phenom Saul “Canelo” Alvarez against World Champion Carlos “Tata” Baldomir, top junior welterweight contender “Vicious” Victor Ortiz taking on former World Champion “Vicious” Vivian Harris and former World Champion Daniel Ponce De Leon squaring off against number two world rated featherweight Antonio Escalante in a WBO Featherweight Title Elimination bout.