Shane Mosley : The Training Diaries Part 2
It’s only hours before the Cotto-Mosley bout. It's all about focus now.
2007-11-08
By Shane Mosley
We left camp at Big Bear last week to fly to New York and get ready for Madison Square Garden. For all intents and purposes, training is now over, This week is more promoting than anything else. The physical preparation is complete and from here on out it’s all mental. At this point, I’m just counting the minutes until the bell rings.
In training camp you have the luxury of having the people you really want around you. That all goes out the window the week before the fight. Especially the night of the fight when everybody starts coming in town. Most of the week I try to stay secluded. Stay focused. Not too secluded of course, people have to see you to build the excitement, but even more so it’s important to stay extremely focused.
When you watch most fights on TV, it always looks like chaos backstage in the dressing rooms. But in my locker room, it’s just me, my father and a few close people – my cut man, my bodyguard. Four of five people at most – that’s how I try to keep it at least. And I don’t have any real rituals to speak of. Other than using the same brand of gloves and shoes, I’m not really superstitious about stuff like that.
People ask me about the music that plays when I walk down the aisle before getting into the ring. That’s not really for me. I choose something that I think will get the crowd hyped up and get them excited about the fight. I actually listen to R&B, sometimes jazz, something more mellow right before the fight.
Walking down the aisle is interesting. At this point in my career I’m enough of a veteran that I can now start really noticing people in the stands when I walk by and the things they say. Most fighters are generally aware of what the crowd is saying – good or bad. But now I’m probably more aware of it and I can still focus on the fight.
I remember in my first fight against Oscar de la Hoya, seeing Denzel Washington and he wished me luck. That meant a lot. I’ll see Will Smith. Jada Pinkett, Salma Hayek and I can pick them out as I go in, especially if they’re up front. Magic Johnson comes a lot.
Once the bell rings, it’s all about the guy across from me. You envision the fight all during training camp, and you can have a strategy, but I a lot of it is spontaneous. You make adjustments on the fly. But if you watch fight films, eventually the fighter is going to do a lot of what he did in the last fight. He might change it around a bit in the beginning, but after a while he’ll go back to his old ways.
I feel really good about this fight, mostly because I’m in the best shape of my life. I know where I’m at as a fighter. We’ll see where he is. Either way, it s going to exciting.
Photos: Rob DeLorenzo. Courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions.
About the Fight
“Sugar” Shane Mosley vs. Miguel Cotto.
Saturday, November 10, at the “Mecca of Boxing,”
Madison Square Garden.
The 12-round world welterweight title fight will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View, beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.
Read Part 1 of "Shane Mosley: The Training Diaries"