| Born: September 7th, 1971 in Lynwood, California |
| Nationality: American |
| Famous For: Being a champion in 3 weight divisions |
| Awards: 6 major world titles |
Shane Mosley is a popular American professional boxer from California. He has held world titles in three weight divisions. He has held a total of eight major and minor titles in his career.
Early Life
Shane Mosley was born on September 7th, 1971 in Pomona, California. As a young man, he developed a great interest in boxing after watching his father, spar with professionals at the gym.
Shane proved to be a promising fighter on the Los Angeles amateur boxing circuit. In 1989, he fought to win the U.S. Amateur championship as a lightweight; he also claimed the silver medal in World Junior Championships. In 1990, he repeated as U.S. Amateur lightweight champion and won a bronze medal at the Goodwill Games.
Shane Mosley moved up a weight class and won U.S. Amateur Championship as a light welterweight in 1991. However, he still fell short in his bid for the Olympics after losing to Vernon Forrest at the trials for the 1992 games. Despite this, Shane had very high hopes after compiling a 230 – 12 amateur record. He turned professional with his father being his trainer.
Professional Career
Mosley fought in near obscurity early into his professional career. He only managed to get his big break when Cedric Kushner, who was a promoter, pitted him against Philip Holiday – the then International Boxing Federation lightweight champion. Mosley won this bout by decision; he overwhelmed his competition with amazing speed and power.
Seeking other new challenges, Shane moved up 2 levels to the welterweight class; he won twice before getting his first big time match against World Boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya. The fight took place on June 17th, 2000. Mosley managed to win this contest and this earned him his reputation as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter.
Mosley suffered a pair of losses, but then claimed another victory over De la Hoya which redeemed him. However, this was soon diminished after back-to-back losses to Winky Wright. Shane Mosley later fired his father as his trainer and hired a new one. Shane managed to overcome his string of losses by beating Fernando Vargas two times and dropping a weight class to topple Luis Collazo for the WBC welterweight title. On January 24th, 2009, Mosley won against Antonia Margarito to regain his WBA welterweight title. Shane Mosley retired at the age of 40 with a record of 46 wins, where 39 were by knockout, 8 losses, 1 draw and 1 no contest.
Retirement and Return
After announcing his retirement, Mosely said he would spend more time training his son; Shane Jr. Mosley also promoted a fight in order to raise money for his family’s Diamond’s Love Foundation. However, after a while, Shane announced he was coming out of retirement. He decided to fight Pablo Cano for the WBC championship. He won this fight with all the 3 judges scoring the bout 115-113. Cano had managed to win the first few rounds but Mosley took control of the remaining rounds. Mosley plans to continue boxing.