On a Thursday night in Panama at an arena named after the great Roberto Duran, potential future Hall of Famer and current veteran contender Shane Mosley was back in action- delivering a vintage “Sugar” Shane finish. Mosley (49-9-1, 41 KOs) scored a knockout in the final round against Patrick Lopez (23-6, 14 KOs) who gave Sugar all he could handle in their ten-round fight.
The fight was much more competitive than most thought it would be, and Lopez did not show a lot of rust for a guy who has been out of the ring for thirteen months. However, Shane was in control in the first few rounds, landing the harder, crisper punches on the tough Lopez, who had to climb off the canvas from a massive shot.
“Sugar” landed a highlight reel left hook that dropped Lopez at the end of the second round. Lopez channeled his inner Zab Judah as he got up from the devastating shot he just received. He would regain his feet and actually go on to win some rounds from that point.
Lopez was landing flush on the chin of Mosley, the problem was that he could not hurt the veteran, who still possess an iron chin. Mosley appeared to be getting outworked in the middle stages of the fight from my perspective.
When it came to the ninth round, Mosley knew he may have been up on the cards, but still sensed that he gave away a few rounds and desperately needed to end the fight before the final bell.
Shane delivered as he usually does, with an electrifying finish. Less than a minute into the tenth round, Mosley landed another vicious left hook that sent Lopez stumbling back and into the corner, down for the second time in the fight.
Lopez took his time getting up, but would not recover from the second knockdown of the fight. Mosley proceeded to land at will against the defenseless Lopez, who fell into the ropes, before getting knocked down a second time in the round, again by a left hook.
The fight ended with Lopez falling to the canvas, and the referee waving an end to the bout. It did not look like Lopez went down from a punch the final time he went down, but rather just fatigue setting in.
Lopez fought hard, but in the end, simply could not eat any more of Shane’s power shots. He did a marvelous job to climb off the canvas after the huge knockdown in the second round, but there was absolutely no way for him to survive that tenth and final round.
Mosley definitely showed in this fight that his defensive skills and reflexes are nowhere close to what they used to be, but that is obvious and expected with an older fighter. However, Shane still has knockout power, and could hurt a lot of the top guys in and around his weight class, making him a viable threat and contender.
