Shane Mosley Jr. returned home a winner.
With his Hall of Fame father Shane Mosley Sr. seated ringside, the second-generation boxer masterfully outboxed Mexico’s Mario Lozano en route to a ten-round, unanimous decision. Judges Rudy Barragan (100-90), Zachary Young (99-91) and Dr. Lou Moret (99-91) scored wide in favor of Mosley Jr. in their DAZN-aired super middleweight contest Saturday evening at Fox Theater in his childhood hometown of Pomona, California.
Mosley Jr. worked the jab in the opening round of his first since a points win over Gabriel Rosado last April 9 in San Antonio, Texas. The ten-month inactive stretch paled in comparison to the 42 months in between fights for Chihuahua, Mexico’s Lozano, who hasn’t fought since an August 2019 seventh-round knockout loss to former WBO junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith. It took a while for Lozano to find his offense, which allowed Mosley to enjoy the best moments of the round including a left hook to the body in the closing seconds.
Lozano landed a check left hook towards the back half of round two, his best punch of the fight to that point. Mosley took the shot well and continued to come forward, using his jab to push Lozano around the ring for much of round three.
Both fighters picked up the tempo in round four. Mosley remained jab heavy but also punched in combination. Lozano threw left hooks to the body, which set up overhand rights upstairs. The veteran boxer was quicky forced to fight in reverse after Mosley connected with a lead left hook.
Both fighters had their moments in a briskly paced round five. Lozano enjoyed his best moments in counterpunching opportunities. Mosley committed more to his power shots and landed a clean left hook as Lozano retreated to the ropes.
Mosley committed to the body in round six, landing with jabs, right hands and left hooks downstairs. Lozano was pinned in a corner and forced to cover up as Mosley went on the attack, only to briefly turn the tide with a counter right hand after picking off a left hook.
The spirited effort by Lozano was slowed in rounds seven and eight. Mosley rattled off four- and five-punch combinations, significantly outworking Lozano to the point of the Mexican boxer being asked prior to the start of round nine if he was willing to continue.
Lozano took the question to heart, taking a deep breath before he rose from his stool and picked up the pace in round nine. Mosley fought smart, his offense output taking a dip as he made sure to not get caught with anything careless. Lozano intensified his attack in the tenth and final round, to which Mosley responded with body shots down the stretch but unable to close the show.
Lozano fell to 33-11 (24KOs) with his third straight defeat. Mosley has won two in a row and six of his last seven bouts as he improved to 19-4 (10KOs).
Headlining the show, Tijuana’s Luis Nery (33-1, 25KOs) and Azat Hovhannisyan (21-3, 17KOs)—an Armenian based out of Glendale, California—meet in a scheduled 12-round WBC junior featherweight title eliminator.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox