SUGAR SHANE AND THE BOGEYMAN
TWENTY years ago, there were three Americans at the top of the mythical pound-for-pound list and each of them fought within a week of one another at the start of 2002. In order of appearance, we had “Sugar” Shane Mosley, the welterweight king, we had Bernard ‘The Executioner’ Hopkins, the middleweight ruler, and we had Roy Jones Jnr, the leader at light-heavyweight. All three presented a good case for pound-for-pound supremacy yet nobody at the time could decide which of this trio deserved to fill the number one spot.
Over the course of two Saturdays – January 26 and February 2 – there were three fights involving these champions. However, only one of these fights was considered intriguing and only one of these fights threatened to upset the order at the top of the boxing world. It wasn’t, you won’t be surprised to learn, Roy Jones Jnr’s fight against unknown Australian Glen Kelly in Miami, Florida. Nor, for that matter, was it Bernard Hopkins’ routine title defence against the solid but unremarkable Carl Daniels in Reading, Pennsylvania.
“VERNON WAS A VERY GOOD FIGHTER IN HIS OWN RIGHT. HE TOOK AFTER HEARNS”
Instead, the fight that promised something other than a predictable victory for the favourite
