Conquest adds little to Floyd’s resume

The rules don't change in boxing. It's like any sport.

You have to score to win.

Shane Mosley couldn't score after the second round Saturday night. He couldn't find a way inside.

He didn't stand a chance, really.

This wasn't the elite welterweight most believed Floyd Mayweather Jr. needed to solidify his undefeated resume. This was a slower, weaker 38-year-old fighter not near the level of his finest days.

Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden was what a guy not on performance-enhancing drugs looks like when fighting a superior opponent.

Another win for Mayweather, another unanimous decision, another megafight passes without the only real megafight anyone wants to see occurring.

Manny Pacquiao needs to rethink the whole Olympic drug-testing protocol and finally come to terms with Mayweather.

Until then, it will be just more of what we saw Saturday.

The scores were predictably one-sided -- 119-109 on two judges' cards and 118-110 on a third -- but within another comfortable victory was a moment that clearly defined Mayweather's greatness.

He was hit, stunned, wobbled ... and didn't go down.

For one-punch shots, the right hand Mosley landed in the second round has to be among the hardest ever to catch Mayweather, but the fact he gathered himself enough not to hit the canvas says much about why he is now 41-0.

"It's a contact sport, and you're going to get hit," Mayweather said. "When you do, you suck it up and keep on fighting. That's what I did."

Said Mosley: "After that right hand, I knew I needed to knock him out and do it sooner rather than later. I couldn't adjust, and he did. I tried moving around (the punch), but he was too quick, and I was too tight.

"I still feel really good, but my neck is really tight. I think the layoff (from January of last year) hurt me. My neck is really tight."

Could be the layoff.

Could be all that lactic acid that builds up when you're not taking EPO.

Could be both.

Fact is, a tight neck didn't lose anything. Mayweather became more aggressive as things wore on because it became obvious he had little to no respect for Mosley's power once the rounds began to pass.

Everyone wants Mayweather to attack more, engage more, make fights more exciting for fans. But he is so precise when he does come forward, so accurate when he does counter, you can see why he doesn't. That's on offense.

His defense following the second round was again superb to the level Mosley landed just 20 percent of his 452 punches all night. Mosley threw 283 jabs. He landed 16 percent of them.

Mayweather might have ducked this matchup for years, but in the end it proved an intelligent decision. Afterward, he looked as though he had gone 12 rounds on "Dancing with the Stars" rather than against a future Hall of Famer.

"I think we could have gone on the attack a lot sooner and then gone for the knockout," Mayweather said. "I did what the fans came here to see, a toe-to-toe battle. That's not my style, but I wanted to give them that type of fight and knew I could do it."

Now, again, it's all in Pacquiao's corner.

Nothing has changed. Whether it was a supreme point of gamesmanship or that he truly wants to be the athlete credited with guaranteeing boxing is as clean a sport as possible, Mayweather demanding Pacquiao adhere to the type of Olympic drug testing that Saturday's fight was staged under has put a spotlight of doubt squarely on the Filipino's shoulders.

Each time Pacquiao balks at such testing, more and more questions about why should surface.

His reasons to date don't stand up.

"If Manny Pacquiao can take a blood and urine test, then we have a fight," Mayweather said. "If not, no fight. We tried to make it happen (late last year), it didn't work out, and we moved on. I'm going to continue to fight the best. Mosley was a warrior."

Mosley was an aging fighter who nearly landed the punch no one has against Mayweather and then spent the next 10 rounds showing he is nowhere near what he once was. He couldn't score. He couldn't do much of anything following that right hand.

The fight grew longer, and Shane Mosley became more and more tired.

Hey, it's the price of being a 38-year-old fighter and drug-free.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.