By Don Colgan

Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

The “Sugar Ray” moniker is very sacrilegious in boxing.  Once, in a welterweight non-title tiff in the late 1940’s, Sugar Ray Robinson’s opponent had the audacity to call himself Sugar and was introduced accordingly.  After the introductions the two fighters met at ring center for the customary handshake and Sugar informed his opponent that there was “Only one Sugar.”  90 seconds Ray landed a picture perfect right cross and “Sugar”, the imposter, was summarily counted out.

Many years later, when Ray Leonard began to blaze his legendary path as an eventual Gold Medalist on the 1976 US Olympic Squad, he telephoned the original Sugar Ray and asked permission to be referred to as such.  Robinson had seen Leonard fight and gave his consent.  He permitted Leonard entry into a truly exclusive club.

Leonard wasn’t always Sugar Ray.  When he wrested the WBA welterweight Champion from Wilfred Benitez, his first championship, he informed the press that he was putting the dance, dazzle and punch act on the shelf for one night.  He was going to punch with the younger champion when the occasion presented itself.  After his 15th round TKO victory, he told the press, “I wasn’t Sugar Ray tonight, I was Ray Leonard.”

Over the years there have been imposters who have tried on the Sugar Ray handle only to embarrass themselves.  Sugar Ray Robinson was, pound for pound, the greatest pugilist to don gloves and step between the ropes.  In terms of class, dignity and talent he established an unreachable bar and created immortality for himself that will endure for the ages.

However, on occasion a Sugar Ray finds himself onto a card and into the newspapers.  Sugar Ray Seales was a good fighter and a legitimate Middleweight contender for a while in the middle and late 1970’s until he was flattened by Marvin Hagler.  There have been a few third raters who borrowed the surname, however, after Leonard, a true heir to the great moniker was not in sight.

Then, without exceptional fanfare, a dynamic young talent out of Lynwood, California began his professional career in 1993 after a Leonard like amateur run in which he amassed the National Amateur Championships and a berth on the 1992 US Olympic Boxing Squad.  A young pedigree every bit as impressive as Leonard, or even Robinson for that matter, Mosley’s venture into the punch for pay ranks began with a string of respectable yet unspectacular triumphs.  

However, he boxed as “Sugar” Shane Mosley and, as he built his undefeated portfolio over increasingly difficult opposition during the early and middle 1990’s, his use of the Sugarman’s moniker was not met with universal approval.  Leonard had recently retired (with the lone exception of a failed comeback bout against Macho Camacho several years later) and there was a degree of resentment in the boxing fraternity about Mosley’s high profile “Sugar Shane” marketing.

Mosley was a budding superstar, yet lacked Robinson or Leonard’s élan.  However, he stopped 20 of his first 21 opponents, then won a clear cut unanimous verdict over Holiday to gain the IBF Lightweight Championship in August, 1997.  He was a strong, technically proficient ringman with a slugger’s punch.  There wasn’t a weapon in his ring arsenal that wasn’t honed to near perfection. He acquired expertise at eluding punches, had a tremendous, well timed jab and employed the Tony Zale technique of attacking the body until the head died.  By 1999 he was appearing in boxing’s “Pound for Pound” rankings with regularity.

Sugar Shane was, without doubt, one of the most skilled and formidable ring champions of his time, yet he was light years away from winning universal acceptance into the “Sugar” fraternity.  He lacked Robinson’s public acceptance of supremacy and Leonard’s magnificent flash.  He just kept winning, and dominating!

As Robinson had his Fullmer and Griffith had his Benvenuti, Sugar Shane needed an epic challenge to demonstrate his ring dominance.  He didn’t have to look far.  The number one ranked “Pound for Pound” fighter in the world, the Golden Boy from California, Oscar De La Hoya, was in the opposing corner on June 17, 2000.  This was a fork in the road for both fighters.  De La Hoya was a fistic idol, crowned rather prematurely as a ring immortal.  He had never met a foeman such a Mosley.  His points verdict over Pernell Whitaker was not a fistic masterpiece and many thought Sweet Pea had done more than enough to earn the decision.

Mosley was a clear underdog.  It mattered little; Sugar Shane came prepared to fight twelve hard rounds.  Oscar prepared himself to fight six hard rounds, hoping his reputation and flash would put him in the winners circle.  It was a pattern that De La Hoya would repeat on a number of occasions in the years that followed.

Mosley forced the action and badly out punched the Californian over the final three sessions.  Predictably, there was doubt at the final bell.  Shane got the split-decision although the judge who scored the bout for De La Hoya was obviously watching another fight.

After the victory over De La Hoya, Mosley was, pound for pound and punch for punch, one of the top three fighters in the world.  However, the “Sugar” moniker just didn’t seem to fit.  He certainly had not been marketed as effectively as Leonard and boxing had suffered a precipitous decline in the post-Tyson era. Between rape convictions and torn earlobes, boxing’s star power was dim and public recognition of even the best fighters in the world was diminishing, particularly in the United States.  Mosley was widely recognized as a superb fighter yet he wasn’t the Sugar Ray Leonard of 1980 or the Sugar Ray Robinson of 1957.  

Then he took a risk that only a great champion would take.  He campaigned, almost as if he was the challenger, for a title defense against his conqueror in the amateurs, the talented and tough Vernon Forrest.  Forrest was not perched in the role of number one contender and there was no clamor whatsoever for the bout.  Yet he was a sleeper and he publicly called Mosley out, predicting an easy triumph.  Sugar Shane felt it was his defining moment as a champion; he simply had to turn aside Forrest.  However, he couldn’t prevail when the two were simon pures and it did not happen in the two title bouts between them in the pros.

Styles often pose conflicts for certain fighters.  Ali could never solve Norton and Griffith, a clearly superior ringman, struggled mightily against Benvenuti.  Louis nearly lost the title against the rugged, clumsy Arturo Godoy.  Forrest easily out boxed and out punched Mosely to gain the WBC welterweight Crown in their January 2002 encounter and repeated the victory with relative ease six months later.  

Mosley moved up in weight class and didn’t have to wait long to become a champion again.  He met De La Hoya, now clearly slipping, in a return bout in September 2003 and gave the Golden Boy a unanimous decision loss, earning the WBA and WBC light middleweight championship in the process and clearly De La Hoya the most decisive setback in his career.  Shane’s reign was remarkably short lived.  Refusing to take an easy defense, he put his title on the line against the formidable IBF champion Winky Wright in a March 2004 unification bout.  Like with Forrest, he encountered a style he couldn’t solve and lost a unanimous decision in a bout where the champion could claim no more than a handful of rounds.  In a November return, Winky again handled Mosley easily while retaining his undisputed light middleweight title and handing Sugar his fourth defeat in six contests.

Entering 2005, Shane Mosley had to make a statement.  His place among boxing’s elite had been relinquished and he was one decisive loss away from stepping stone status.  He had one last chance to redeem his “Sugar” status and climb back to the top.  He quickly moved back to the welterweight division to regain his old glory. On April 23 he outboxed and out slugged the dangerous David Estrada, earning a 98-91, 98-91, 97-93 unanimous decision.  The former champion followed up that victory with another strong points triumph over unbeaten Jose Luis Cruz in September. He then made a move back up to Junior Middleweight for a major fight that came with an opportunity to land a title shot.  He had to overcome Fernando Vargas in a WBA light middleweight Championship eliminator. 

Mosley was a slight short ender in the betting, but the real end came when Vargas’ left eye was grotesquely swollen, forcing a stoppage by the referee to hand Mosley a TKO win in ten close, brutal sessions.  Sugar Shane was back!  The return match was brutally conclusive, Mosley battered the courageous Vargas at practically ever turn, dropping him and earning a brutal 6th round TKO.

This past February , Mosley, now back as welterweight, scored a knockdown on route to a unanimous decision over Luis Collazo to win the WBC Interim welterweight Championship.  In a span of two and one half years, Shane Mosley earned the right to be called Sugar.  Like Robinson before him, he had endured defeat and been left for dead, only to roar back stronger than ever.  On November 10, Sugar Shane will herald boxing’s wonderful 2007 resurgence when he collides with unbeaten WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto in what will surely be his ultimate ring challenge.  

Tough, but untested in the elite ranks, Cotto should fall to the third coming of Sugar in nine rounds, as Mosely takes his rightful place alongside Robinson and Leonard. 

A Champion for the ages.