The 44 year-old previously informed WBN yesterday that contact had been made with promoter Frank Warren about the possibility of fighting Smith for his WBO super welterweight belt, although pointed out that a rematch clause stipulation was getting in the way of a deal.
Mosley is due to fight in early 2016 but was willing to accept the Smith fight for a fee he described as ‘damn near free’ in order to battle the Briton in a grudge match following a social media spat. Mosley revealed that Warren wanted an immediate rematch should the American take Smith’s belt, which ‘Sugar’ Shane stated was not possible until November 2016 due to other commitments.
According to Mosley, this is the sole reason why talks have finally been shelved on Wednesday and Mosley has moved on.
“It’s all good and I’m passing on the fight,” Mosley exclusively told World Boxing News.
“They don’t want to ink it without an immediate rematch and I don’t have time lose focus on training negotiating a deal that won’t happen. These guys are scared and they made a bad decision.
“No one in the States was even talking about any of these guys until my name was brought up to be on the card. The world would have been watching them and it would have opened doors in the U.S.
“There’s no way I should have taken that fight for less than a million and I took it damn near for free, but they blew it over an immediate. It’s strange.”
Smith is now lined up to face one of the WBO’s Top 15 challengers on Warren’s ‘Xmas Cracker’ card in what will be the Liverpudlian’s first defense of the belt he won earlier this month when stopping John Thompson.
For Mosley, a spring clash at the welterweight limit with Ruslan Provodnikov or Chris Algieri looks set to be the most likely encounter moving forward.
