This weekend Shane Mosley 40-4-0 (35 KO’s) will be taking on unheralded Jose Luis Cruz 32-0-2 (27 KO’s) on the under card of the Marco Antonio Barrera-Robbie Peden fight.  Boxingtalk.com caught up with Shane’s father and former trainer, Jack Mosley, to get his thoughts on Shane’s upcoming bout and more.

BT: “Could you give us your assessment of Shane’s last performance against David Estrada?”

JM: “Well, he beat him.  That’s the thing that counts.  He beat him.”

BT: “Well, what was he doing right and what was he doing wrong, if anything?”

JM: “Well, I thought he could have threw more body shots.  I thought he hurt him with some body shots and he could have threw some body shots and got him outta there.”

BT: “How about his confidence level going into the fight this weekend with Jose Luis Cruz?”

JM: “Well, Shane’s always confident.”

BT: “At 32 – 0 with 27 KOs, Cruz has a deceptively impressive record, as his level of opposition has been extremely questionable, at best.”

JM: “Who’s that?”

BT: “Cruz”

JM: “Uh, I don’t know.  They say he’s a tough guy.  I don’t know nothing about him.”

BT: “Not that you’d be looking past him but....”

JM: “Naw, I wouldn’t do that.  I taught Shane not to look past anybody.  Treat everybody the same.”

BT: “How many more tune-ups do you think Shane needs before getting back into the ring with top level opposition?”

JM: “Shane’s ready for top level opposition now, I guess.  I don’t know.  I haven’t been training him so I don’t really know what he’s doing, you know.  If I’m training him then I’ll know.  I haven’t been training him.  Someone else is training him.  I think it’s John David Jackson.  So I don’t know what they’re doing with him.”

BT: “So you haven’t really been in contact with him much recently, at least not talking about boxing?”

JM: “No, I don’t talk to him about boxing, because, I mean if somebody else is training him I don’t want to get in the way.  I’m not going to be bothered with that.  I’m not going to try to distract him with stuff that I already taught him anyway since he was 8 years old.  So everything he knows, they can’t show him nothing different.  His style is set.  He’s already been trained.  How are you going to show him something?  They can’t show him nothing.  How’s somebody going to show him something when they’ve been knocked out twice themselves?”  Laughs

“I just hope the best for my son, you know, I always do.  It’s my son, so I hope everything’s okay and he don’t get hurt or nothing like that and that he does a good job out there, which he should because he trains hard no matter what, you know?  And I just hope that he’s not lifting a lot of weights and things like that so he can be real flexible and fast.”

BT: “Obviously if Oscar de la Hoya was available, he would be everybody’s preference, but if you can’t get Oscar, who would you like to see Shane fight next?”

JM: “If he can’t get Oscar, it depends on how he’s training, you know?  That’s how I assess things.  If I’m not training him, I can’t put him against anybody because I don’t know what he’s training like.  I don’t know what he’s doing, you know?  Now if he was training with me, and doing all the things I want him to do without any distractions from anybody, and a whole lot of these people who want to distract him, I would say we could fight Zab Judah at 147, because I know what he can do, see?  But I don’t know what he’s doing, you know what I mean?  So I can’t say.”

BT: “Are you saying that you think he’s been distracted recently?”

JM: “Oh yeah, a lot.  That’s how come he’s lost those times.  He’s been distracted, grossly distracted, you know?  And it wasn’t me, you know.” Laughs

BT: “What’s distracting him?”

JM: “I don’t want to say, but it’s a whole lot of stuff, you know.”
 
BT: “How about Paul Briggs.  Are you still working with him?”

JM: “Paul Briggs, I understand, I heard he said it was too fast for him here in America so his wife and everything wanted to keep him there (Australia) I think, that’s what I heard.  I don’t know how true it is, but I heard that he wants to stay there and probably fight in Australia, you know, and do his thing there.  I mean, all the luck to him, you know.” 

BT: “Is there anything else you’d like to add?”

JM: “No, that’s it.  That’s about it, just hope that he (Shane) wins, you know, and resumes his career and not get hurt.  And go ahead and retire a winner and be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Shane’s a great talent, it’s just sad that he had those losses because of distractions.  Maybe he’ll realize when he gets older what the real distractions are.” Laughs. “You know what I mean?”

BT: “Thanks for taking the time to talk with Boxingtalk.com.”