HBO Championship Boxing 

Mosley vs. Wright

March 13, 2004

Mandalay Bay
Las Vegas, NV

"Sugar" Shane Mosley (39-2, 35 KO's) makes his return to the ring since defeating Oscar De La Hoya in

a heated unanimous decision victory back in September of 2003. Mosley will be defending his WBA/WBC

Jr. middleweight titles for the first time against the IBF Jr. middleweight champion Ronald "Winky" Wright

(46-3, 25 KO's).

Mosley is on a one fight win streak since losing two in a row to Vernon Forrest in January and July of

2002 (plus a no-contest with Raul Marquez in February of 2003). 

Wright is coming off a 12 round unanimous decision win over Angel Hernandez in November of 2003.

Wright is on a seven fight win streak since last losing to Fernando Vargas in December of 1999 via

majority decision. Wright won the vacant IBF title by a 12 round unanimous decision over Robert Frazier

back in October of 2001. All of Wright's losses have come by decision in championship bouts - unanimous

decision loss to Julio Cesar Vasquez in August of 1994 for the WBA Jr. middleweight title, majority

decision loss to Harry Simon in August of 1998 and lost his WBO Jr. middleweight title, and the majority

decision loss to Fernando Vargas for the IBF title (as mentioned above).

Expect a good display of boxing skills from these two. Mosley by majority decision.

On the under card, highly touted heavyweight Joe Mesi (28-0, 25 KO's) will face the tough Vassiliy

Jirov (33-1, 29 KO's).

Mesi is coming off a close fight with Monte Barrett this past December (2003) in a bout which saw both

men hit the canvas but Mesi came out on top with a majority decision win. Before his fight with Barrett,

Mesi had rolled off 18 knock outs in a row (starting in 1998).

Jirov is a former IBF cruiserweight champion who was undefeated at 31-0 with 27 KO's before facing James

Toney in April of 2003. In that bout, Jirov lost his title to Toney via a 12 round unanimous decision. Since

his loss, he's racked up two TKO wins over Ernest Mateen in August of 2003 and Joseph Kiwanuka in

November of 2003.

Will Jirov carry his power up one weight class or will Mesi find his range? We'll take Jirov in an upset by late

round TKO.

(2/9/04)