I disagree with your opinion of Mora. He is what he is: an unorthodox boxer who has to rely on ring generalship against world-class fighters because he doesn’t have the power or brute strength to move them. I think gun slingers without “guns,” so to speak, have to possess a certain attitude just to have the balls to climb into the ring with fighters who are packing pistols. I don’t mind watching Mora fight again provided he’s in with an aggressive young talent who can effectively press the fight and set the tempo the way Mosley thought he could. I’m thinking about guys like Alfredo Angulo, Saul Alvarez, and James Kirkland (once he knocks off some rust).

I agree with your take on Mosley. I definitely think it’s time for him to walk away from the combat side of boxing. I’d love to see him stick around as a liaison for Golden Boy Promotions fighters and even as trainer understudy to Naazim Richardson, but I don’t care to see him take any more punches.

I think he’s lucky that Mora isn’t a puncher. If Mora had any power at all, I don’t think HBO’s crew or the majority of ringside observers who thought Mosley was robbed would have scored the fight for the future hall of famer.

As for your draw scorecard, you shouldn’t feel “dirty” at all. It was probably the right score for the fight. Mosley was the aggressor throughout the bout (big surprise) and he was busier, but his offensive effectiveness was generally shutdown by the constant lateral movement of Mora, who landed the cleaner scoring blows in my opinion. So the two boxers, in effect, neutralized each other.

I did the international broadcast of Saturday’s pay-per-view card with Dave Bontempo and we both thought Mora won the fight, although we weren’t surprised that there was a scoring disparity among the official judges; it was a difficult fight to score. Bontempo scored it 115-113 for Mora just as official judge Kermit Bayless did. I thought Mora won by a much wider spread, 117-111. I scored the first nine rounds for the Latin Snake and the final three rounds for Mosley. Were there earlier rounds that could have gone to Mosley? Absolutely. Rounds one, three and four could have just as easily been rounds for the 39-year-old vet. And had I scored those rounds for him my card would look like yours. However, I asked myself who was more “effective” in those rounds and I thought Mora was doing exactly what he wanted to do — and scoring whenever he wanted to — while Mosley was clearly frustrated and not getting off with any kind of leverage or power. In short, the first nine rounds of the fight was a Sergio Mora fight (which is why we heard so many boos from the crowd); not a Shane Mosley fight.

However, most of the ringside press scored the fight as you and official judge Lou Moret did.

RingTV.com co-editor Michael Rosenthal, The L.A. Times’ Lance Pugmire, MaxBoxing.com’s Gabe Montoya, and Fightnews.com’s Francisco Salazar all scored the bout 114-114. So you are in very good company, Bim.

David Avila, of the Riverside Press-Enterprise, scored it 115-113 for Mora, as Bontempo did.

Yahoo.com’s Kevin Iole, Robert Morales, of the L.A. Daily News, and HBO.com’s Peter Nelson scored it 115-113 for Mosley.

THE RING’s Ivan Goldman and Tim Smith, of the New York Daily News, scored the bout 1116-112 for Mosley, as official judge David Denkin did.

ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael scored it 117-111 for Mosley.

The scores were all over the place but the majority of press row either scored it a draw or had it 7-5 in rounds for either guy.

However, the people around him believe he easily beat Mora, which proves (in their eyes) that Mosley is still an elite boxer with a few high-profile bouts left in him. Mosley called out Miguel Cotto at the post-fight press conference. Trainer Naazim Richardson told me that he’d like Mosley to take a two-or-three month rest and then get back to camp to prepare for a fight in early 2011. When I asked him who he’d like Mosley to fight next, he told me “Manny Pacquiao.”

I don’t want to sound negative and I certainly don’t want to be branded as a “Sugar Shane hater” because nothing could be farther from the truth but I think Mosley is headed for a brutal knockout loss and if he stays active he’ll definitely be on the same road that Roy Jones is currently walking.

David Rodela, who sparred with Ortiz in preparation for the Vivian Harris fight, told me that “Victor has his swagger back” before Saturday’s fight, and I believe the 130-pound fighter was correct in his assessment. The poise and form that Ortiz showed against the former titleholder reminded me of the version of Victor that knocked out Carlos Maussa in one round back in November of 2007. Ortiz is a few years older and wiser thanks to his devastating loss to Marcos Maidana. I think the scrutiny and pressure he’s had to deal with since that loss, plus the busy comeback schedule Golden Boy Promotions put him on, has matured him beyond his 23 years. I would strongly favor Ortiz in a rematch with Maidana and I would not count him out in matchups with any of the young 140-pound titleholders.

Alvarez is a young stud. I like the jab and well-timed right hands he exhibited against Baldomir and the way he closed the show once he noticed that he hurt the 39-year-old former champ at the end of the sixth round. He’s got very good finishing instincts, which should serve him well in the ring and in terms of fan appeal. I don’t know if he’s going to be the next “great” Mexican fighter but he’s definitely on his way to being Mexico’s next star.

I favored Ponce-DeLeon over Antonio Escalante but I thought the former 122-pound beltholder would take the exciting Texan out late or win a decision. Instead, the awkward southpaw vet blasted the kid out in awesome fashion. DeLeon is back and better than ever. I don’t know if I would favor him over Lopez or Caballero in revenge rematches, but I know he’ll be a lot more competitive in those return matches and they will be a lot of fun to watch.

I agree with your take on the fight 100 percent. Physically speaking, Mosley’s got the body of a 29-year-old fighter. I don’t consider him to be a “shot” fighter. How can I? Look at his record since his back-to-back losses to Winky Wright. He’s 7-2-1 in his last 10 bouts. Mosley defeated former champs Fernando Vargas (twice) and Ricardo Mayorga and beat top welterweights Antonio Margarito and Luis Collazo in that stretch. His losses were to a 40-0 Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a 30-0 Miguel Cotto.

Mosley’s still a formidable athlete but his mind doesn’t respond to certain tactical challenges in the ring the way it did when he was in his prime (1997-2001). Skillful boxers and taller fighters have always given him trouble but he used to know how to break them down (see his knockouts of James Leija, Manuel Gomez and Wilfredo Rivera, and of course, his first decision over Oscar De La Hoya, for examples). It doesn’t seem like he can handle a sharp jab or lateral movement at all these days, and that’s sad.

And it doesn’t bode well for his future because I don’t expect him to hang up his gloves anytime soon. He wants to fight, the people around him still think he’s got it, and who knows, maybe he needs the money due to his divorce with Jin. All I know is that a world-class stick-and-move boxer with a good jab and decent power will do a lot more than frustrate Mosley as Mora did for most of their fight; a guy like Sergio Martinez will brutally dominate Shane. I’m not even sure if power is necessary for a boxer to bewilder Mosley at this point. If Yuri Foreman’s knee can be rehabbed to 85 percent of its effectiveness I think he’d literally box circles around Mosley.

The best option for Mosley in terms of making money and being involved in a major event would be a rematch for Cotto. That fight could be an attraction in New York City, and perhaps Cotto has slowed down enough for Mosley to catch him and hurt him. Of course a problem with that option is the on-again cold war between GBP and Top Rank. Can they get along enough to make the fight? Probably. What the hell else are they going to do with those faded veterans? Personally, I’d rather see Cotto-Mosley II than watch either vet get served up as a stepping stone for Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Saul Alvarez.

The “Great Darkness Saga” is also one of my all-time favorite cross-over stories. The Legion of the Super-Heroes, which that arc played in, was one of the D.C. titles that collected for many years. I bought any comic that featured that great Jack Kirby-created antagonist, Darkseid.

I assume by “cross-over stories,” you mean arcs that play out in more than one title. I should remind you that I stopped collecting comic books from 1987 through 2007. The whole crossover thing was just getting started in the mid-80s, and though I’ve gone back and caught up with my old favorites (mainly the X-Men) by purchasing trade paperbacks collecting titles from the 1990s and early part of the last decade, I still missed a lot. Anyway, here’s my top five Marvel cross-over stories:

1. Civil War (which played through a limited series and almost every damn title Marvel had at the time)
2. Mutant Massacre (Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, Thor, Daredevil and Power Pack)
3. House of M (almost every Marvel title)
4. Secret Wars (the first mega crossover that I’m aware of, which played though a 12-issue limited series and every major Marvel title at the time, 1984-85)
5. Asgardian Wars (Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and Alpha Flight)

(Honorable mention: Fall of the Mutants, Second Coming, Necrosha, Messiah Complex, and World War Hulk.) Lot of “wars” going on in the Marvel Universe, huh?

Sorry 90-percent of those were mainly X-Men related, but I’ve been a hopeless X-geek since the late 1970s. I’m taking a break from collecting the post-“Second Coming” X-titles (because I’m pissed that they killed off my all-time favorite mutant, Nightcrawler, during that story arc), so maybe I’ll have the time and dollars to check out some of the non-X-men related crossovers (other than Civil War and WWH) that have taken place in recent years.

By the way, since it’s going to be kind of slow the next two weeks (thanks to the implosion of the Super Six tournament), my next two mailbags will feature all of the Top Five list questions I’ve been receiving over the past two weeks (and don’t worry, folks, they’re all boxing related).

Anyway, back to what happened on Saturday.

I don’t think you can officially say “THE RING” scored the fight for Mora. According to Eric Raskin’s column this week, he, Bill Dettloff and Joe Santoliquito all scored the fight for Mosley by a couple of points. Ivan Goldman scored it 116-112 for Mosley. Michael Rosenthal scored the fight a draw. The only person affiliated with THE RING who scored the bout for Mora was Yours Truly.

I think it’s safe to say that the majority of viewers thought Mosley won by a little bit. However, that might just be the case for North American viewers who watched the HBOP PPV broadcast, which I hear was very much slanted in favor of Mosley.

A poll on EastsideBoxing.com’s forum, which is populated with mostly European-based fans who watched the international feed of Saturday’s card, revealed that a slight majority (57%) of its members thought Mora won.

The bottom line on the fight is that it wasn’t terrible interesting to watch and it was hard to score. I had a feeling the decision would be controversial. In the “Outcome” portion of the RingTV.com Head to Head analysis I predicted a close decision victory for Mora but an unpopular one with the fans, who would favor Mosley’s aggression over the younger man’s ring generalship.

I was almost right. One thing I was very wrong about (aside from thinking press row would have it for Mora) was the amount of drama in the bout. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch a replay of the fight if I were you. You pretty much have the gist of the bout: Mosley was unimpressive and Mora didn’t prove much in giving the veteran fits.

Still, my guess is that Mora is at least deserving of a lower top-10 ranking at junior middleweight, if that’s the division he wishes to stay in. Anyone who goes 1-1-1 versus Vernon Forrest and Mosley, even at the tail-end of their careers, is beyond an average pro boxer.

As for Mosley, if he fights on think he'll struggle to beat guys like Bundrage, Powell and Foreman. I would pick Cintron over Mosley because of his height, reach, jab, power and athleticism. I don't know what to think about a Cotto rematch, but I know Mosley will eat some hard freakin' shots from the Puerto Rican star and I don't want that to happen to him. Same deal with an Angulo showdown.

I have no clue as to what's next for Sergei Dzinziruk, but I know that he'd win every round against Mosley if they fought.

What's my “overall impression” of Mosley's legacy? I think he’s a first-ballot hall of famer. I don’t think Mosley’s an all-time great (I don’t believe De La Hoya or any of the guys who beat Shane are either). He just wasn’t versatile enough. Who knows how good Mosley could have been had his father signed his ultra-talented son with a major promoter right out of the amateurs, or had he allowed for a more experienced trainer to join their team. I think the potential was there for greatness. It simply wasn’t cultivated enough (or correctly).

I’ll say this, I think Mosley has the mentality of a great fighter. He’ll fight anyone, no matter how strong or talented or difficult their styles are. He’ll fight them twice, back to back. That willingness to challenge himself didn’t wane with age. I respect that. And though he lost to Forrest, Wright, Cotto and Mayweather, I give him credit for having the balls to get into the ring with those guys. Go to Boxrec and look at their records when Mosley fought them. It’s impressive.

Also, Mosley had great form as lightweight contender and titleholder, and he probably could have made some serious noise at junior welterweight had he decided to campaign there instead of jumping directly to welterweight in late 1999. As it is, I feel honored to have been able to see him fight when he was a prospect back in ’94 and ’95, witness his amazing prowess in the gym when he was an unsung contender and newly minted beltholder in in ’96, ’97 and ’98, and then watch and cover his rise to the top of the sport in ’99 and 2000.