Mosley stops Vargas!

Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Sugar Shane Mosley once again managed to stop Fernando Vargas, but with considerably less controversy.

Speed kills, and it was the speed of Mosley that befuddled a listless Vargas, who this time around, did not look like he belonged in the same ring with his vastly superior opponent. Vargas, both of hands of feet, looked exceptionally slow. He just could not pull the trigger or even manage to put Mosley in any type of jeopardy. Mosley's right hand seemed to fight its target rather easily, but it may have been the left hand that did most of the damage this time around. After five one sided rounds won by Mosley, Mosley managed to cut Vargas right eye with a left hook, and dropped him later in the round. Vargas barely beat the count, was seriously hurt. Referee Kenny Bayless let the fight continue, but Mosley immediately reigned a series of a devastating combination punches on his battered opponent, prompting Bayless to stop the carnage just seconds later.

Where do both fighters go from here? Hopefully last night's one-sided loss signals retirement from the square ring for El Feroz. The man appears to have seen better days. This was a case of a young kid, years ago, spending himself way to early by fighting dangerous and more experienced opponents too soon in his career. Spending himself before he even reached his prime, Vargas fought all of the top notch champions and skilled boxers one after the other. From Winky Wright, to Ike Quartey, to Felix Trinidad, and on to Oscar De la hoya, he has provided fans with memorable wars that were crowdpleasing affairs, but he also sustained a great deal of accumulated punishment over the years. Best of luck to Fernando Vargas, a fellow who I have always had a great deal of admiration for. Great heart, but I would tell him to retire while he still has his wits about him.

As for Sugar Shane Mosley, he may have performed better in this fight, than he did in his previous engagement with Vargas. This fight, too, was fought at 154lbs, which was out of Mosley's natural element. Back down to 147lbs? Could well be. After seeing what Mosley did last night at 154lbs, I would love to see him move back down to 147lbs for a showdown with Pound for King King Floyd Mayweather Jr. Taking note of Zab Judah's success in the first five rounds against Mayweather, it would be interesting to see what type of challenge Mosley puts forth against the sweet science's modern day picasso.

Mosley, unlike Judah, is not a natural southpaw, but he's been known to fight from the southpaw stance rather effectively [you may recall that he changed the tide of his first fight against Oscar De la hoya by switching to southpaw]. Mosley is a switch hitter, with perhaps greater speed than Judah.

Yes, Mayweather vs Mosley is an intriguing matchup at 147lbs. Let's see it happen, hopefully early in 2007.