Boxing legend “Sugar” Shane Mosley laid out the princely sum it cost him when suffering a loss to current king Canelo Alvarez back in 2012.
Mosley, who retired in 2016, faced Alvarez at the back end of his career. It got planned as a building fight for Canelo.
But Shane being the champion he is, the multi-weight title-holder, thought his experience would see him over the line.
Mosley was super-confident of this outcome at his best weight of super-welterweight. So much so that Mosley waged on himself to the tune of a million dollars.
The only problem for Shane was, he only earned $600,000 for the actual fight itself. Therefore, when losing convincingly to Canelo via unanimous decision 119-109 [twice] and 118-110, Mosley was down $400,000.
Explaining what went down, Shane Mosley spoke to Mario Lopez on “OK Bet” recently.
“They were gonna pay me $600,000 [to face Canelo Alvarez], but I made a bet for a million dollars that I was gonna beat Canelo,” he stated.
“If I would’ve won, I’d have $6 million. I was thinking this snot-nose kid is not going to beat me at 154.
“I had to pay $400,000 for getting my butt kicked. Canelo got me.”
Canelo got highly praised when Mosley discussed where he sits in the sport after a phenomenal rise to the top. He has just one solitary loss to Floyd Mayweather.
The Californian even named Canelo as the best fighter of the last ten years. WBN gave that honor to Mayweather recently for his achievements in elevating the sport to two Pay Per Views over four million buys.
Not for Mosley, though. He gave that honor to Canelo.
“The fighter of the decade for me was Canelo Alvarez. He moved up in weight from 154 to 160, 168, 175, and he dominated.
“He fights all of the best fighters out there,” pointed out Mosley.
SHANE MOSLEY DIFFERENCE
On the differences he sees in the Mexican superstar since they fought, he concluded: “Canelo is a man now. When I fought him, he was 22 years old.
“He was really good, and I was impressed by him when I was in the ring with him. I really was trying to use my experience and walk him down because he didn’t know as much as I did.
“He has a great corner and a great team. The coaching is spectacular. They make him throw punches the right way.
“He has great reactions, punching power, speed. The guy is a total package. He’s pound-for-pound the best right now.
“He knows the old school and new school. I was surprised by the knowledge that he had. He beat me, and it’s obvious that he’s great.”
