Boxing: American Mosley headlines first major fight of 2010
Posted: 15 November 2009 0843 hrs

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LAS VEGAS: Five-time world champion Shane Mosley will end one of the longest unforced layoffs of his career when he and Andre Berto square off in a welterweight showdown on 30 January 2010.

Mosley, whose last fight was a ninth-round win over disgraced boxer Antonio Margarito in January, will meet Berto at the 147-pound division at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino.

"I have forgotten more about the fight game than he will ever know," said the 38-year-old Mosley. "Every time I step in the ring people get their money's worth."

Mosley said had hoped to fight sooner than January but couldn't find any takers in the heavily contested welterweight division. He wanted to fight either Miguel Cotto or Manny Pacquiao but lost out on that one when the two signed to fight each other.

It will be Mosley's first fight since his win over Margarito who was caught and suspended by boxing officials for trying to use illegal wraps laced with plaster of Paris like substance inside his boxing gloves against Mosley.

Margarito, who is in Las Vegas for the Cotto-Pacquiao fight but wasn't at Mosley's news conference, was slapped with a one-year suspension.

"I am so excited to be back in the ring again," Mosley said. "It has been so long it seems like I have been on restrictions like Margarito. We fight again at about the same time."

Organizers are billing it as the first major fight of 2010 as Mosley holds the World Boxing Association super welterweight belt and Berto is the World Boxing Council welterweight champ.

Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs) has competed as a lightweight, welterweight and junior middleweight in his brilliant 16-year career. He has won seven of his last eight fights dating back to 2005.

Mosley's trainer Nazim Richardson said Mosley may be a veteran fighter but he is still looking to learn new things in the ring.

"When you step into the ring you take either two things away," Richardson said. "You take either experience or punishment and Shane Mosley takes experience.

"Shane Mosley is a legend and I am just glad to have the best seat in the house."

Berto, who comes from Haiti, has won 25 straight fights with no losses and 19 knockouts. The rising star in the welterweight division has scored impressive wins over Cosme Rivera, Michel Trabant and Luis Collazo.

This will mark the biggest fight of the 26-year-old's career and just his second in Las Vegas.

"This is the fight I have waited my whole career for and now it is finally a reality," he said.

- AFP/sc