In one of the most impressive performances of his life, Shane Mosley put aside all of his distractions and absolutely destroyed Antonio Margarito, taking his WBA welterweight title in the process.

Mosley was all over Margarito from the opening bell, and likely swept every round on the scorecards before dropping Margarito late in the eighth round. Margarito was barely able to make it up before the bell rescued him.

Despite Margarito’s insistence that the fight be stopped after the eighth round, Margarito managed to convince them to let him go back out for the ninth, which proved to be pointless. Mosley battered Margarito all over the ring until Raul Caiz, Sr. waived it off as Margarito fell to the canvas once again.

The official time was :43 of round nine.

According to CompuBox stats, Mosley threw 22 punches more than Margarito, but landed 70 more. Even more telling is that Mosley connected on 118 of 240 power punches, including a devastating 18 of 21 power shots in the 43 seconds that round nine lasted. Margarito didn’t land a punch that round.

Not only did Mosley have to overcome Margarito’s history of being a non-stop, pressure fighter, as well as his history of having a chin of granite, but Mosley also had to deal with the current BALCO situation that he is linked to and a pending divorce. Throw in a new trainer and what Mosley pulled off in this fight is nothing short of miraculous.

Mosley improves to 46-5 with 39 knockouts with the win, while Margarito falls to 37-6 with 27 knockouts.

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Prior to the fight, HBO announced that Margarito was found to have illegal pads in his gloves and was forced to re-wrap them three times. More on that as it comes out.