Mayweather took on Mosley a decade ago

On May 1, 2010, in front of a packed crowd at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Floyd Mayweather took on “Sugar” Shane Mosley in a welterweight contest for that aired on HBO pay-per-view.

The fight did big business as the undefeated Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) took on Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) who was coming off a victory of Antonio Margarito by ninth-round stoppage. In that victory for Mosley was a bout that would be shrouded in controversy as Margarito’s hand wraps were covered with a plaster-like substance. That led to Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo, having their licenses being temporarily suspended by the California State Athletic Commission. Mayweather was coming off a one-sided victory of Juan Manuel Marquez back in September of the prior year.

That big business was in pay-per-view figures as the fight generated 1.4 million pay-per-view buys (740,000 buys from cable homes and 660,000 from satellite and broadband homes) and $78.33 million in pay-per-view revenue. The star-studded crowd of 15,117 produced a gate of $11,032,100 as well.

While this was Mayweather’s fourth straight fight at the MGM Grand, you couldn’t tell that at the onset as the fans were backing Mosley the 4 to 1 underdog. Early on, Mosley was the aggressor landing shots and even for the first two rounds, won the fight, especially in the second round, where he staggered Mayweather and had him on shaky legs.

Mosley, in a look back of the fight for ESPN, mentioned: “And then with the next right hand, I buckled him a second time. I was like, ‘Oh, he’s ready to go out. I’m ready to knock him out. He can’t take my power.'”

Mayweather, however, survived the round, and from there became a boxing clinic. He changed his fight plan up against Mosley, and by as the rounds grew by, so did Mosley and his chances to land that big shot to hand Mayweather his first ever professional defeat. By the end of the round, Mosley went back to his corner, seen visibly disgusted, knowing that this was not going his way.

After twelve rounds, Mosley was confirmed as much by all three judges had the bout 119-109 x 2 and 118-110 in favor of Mayweather.  Based on all three scorecards, the only round Mosley won was the round where he almost stopped Mayweather. The critical number that shows the wide scorecards was the total number of punches landed as Mayweather connected on 208 of 477 total punches (44 percent) while Mosley connected on only 92 of 452 (20 percent).

But for one round in 2010, “Sugar” Shane Mosley came closest at the time to do the unthinkable in stopping Floyd Mayweather.