'Sugar' Mosley not sweet at all

Shane Mosley, right, throws a punch at Ricardo Mayorga of Nicaragua in the fourth round during their junior middleweight bout at the Home Depot Center.

CARSON // The former world champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley knocked out Ricardo Mayorga near the end of the 12th round in a non-title light middleweight bout. Mosley, 37, connected with a flurry of punches to floor down his opponent. Mayorga climbed off the canvas but within seconds was flattened again, this time for a knockout confirmed at two minutes, 59 seconds of the final round. After 11 rounds, the judges had the four-times world champion Mosley winning in a split decision. "I felt him getting weaker during the fight but he was trying to stay strong," said Mosley, whose record is now 45-5 with 38 knockouts.

Mosley landed far more punches, doing serious damage to his Nicaraguan opponent in the sixth round, although the effort appeared to take a lot out of the eventual winner. Both fighters believed they were winning the fight going into the final round. "I thought I was doing well and I came out to win in the 12th round and he caught me," said the chain-smoking Mayorga. "I will tell you one thing - he hit harder than I thought he would. He took some good shots but I wore him down," said Mosley.

Mosley wants to fight the winner of the rematch between the WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto but not before lining up another fight in between. Mayorga, 35, may consider retirement. On the same bill, the undefeated Andre Berto defended his WBC welterweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Steve Forbes. Berto, 25, now 23-0 with 19 knockouts, outpunched Forbes, 31, in the longest fight of his career. Edgar Sosa defended his WBC light flyweight title with a 12-round points win over Sonny Boy Jaro in Mexico City while, in Hamburg, Guillermo Jones stopped Firat Arslan in the 10th round to claim the WBA cruiserweight title at the Color Arena.

The undefeated Indian heavyweight Guru Nagra knocked out Colin Kenna in the fourth round at the Bracknell Leisure Centre in Berkshire. * Reuters