Jin Mosley: “It’s No Secret To Anybody In Boxing: I Hate Gary Shaw.”
 Part 1 Of An Exclusive 2-Part Interview By Coyote Duran (June 13, 2007) Doghouse Boxing
Behind every good man there is a woman and that woman was Martha Washington, man, and everyday George would come home, she would have a big fat bowl waiting for him, man, when he’d come in the door, man, she was a hip, hip, hip lady, man.” -Ron Slater, ‘Dazed And Confused’
OK, so it isn’t so much the intent as it is the effect. But Rory Cochrane’s character, Slater, as stoned out of his gourd as he was, well-intentioned and was very, very right. But the comparisons between the very first First Lady and Jin Mosley will probably just have to end there for in the mid-to-late 1700s, the straight forward, take-no-prisoners approach to candid rhetoric probably wouldn’t have flushed for Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. Fortunately for Mosley, self-censorship just isn’t her problem. In fact, it’s the best way to get her point across.
And get her point across, she does. And when it comes to family and friends, no punches are pulled. In advising her husband, Sugar Shane Mosley, professionally, Jin Mosley gets to be as interactive as she can possibly be, taking care of all things legal and extracurricular so Shane doesn’t have to.
I had always wanted to speak with Ms. Mosley regarding her station in her husband’s career and how she handles it, being a wife and mother as well. I can barely get up in the morning to get to my regular job let alone help guide a spouse’s career, juggling kids and the tedium and chaos of everyday life. Pulling it off demands respect. But respect is tough to attain and hold onto in a man’s world.
What further got my attention about Ms. Mosley was while strolling through The Dog Pound message board last month, I came upon a topic (http://forums.doghouseboxing.com/index.php?showtopic=104135&hl=) about Gary Shaw in regards to his recognizance of the late Diego Corrales’ posthumous affairs hosted by someone claiming to be Jin Mosley. Now since the debacle of ‘Youngtyson’, a tool who pretended he was young flyweight prospect Rayonta Whitfield last year, I’ve been a little leerier as to who might be lurking around with so little self-esteem as to have to pretend he’s someone else to feel good inside. But with this poster, there was something genuine and heartfelt about her particular rant of justice. That’s when I took a chance and reached out. I figured if this was really Jin Mosley, we could sit down and have one hell of an interview.
And so we did. From my experience, Jin was hardly the abrasive bitch the world has made her out to be. She was merely a spouse who knows what’s good for her husband, her kids and her dearest friends. And perhaps there are some people in boxing, who, if they know what’s good for them, should very much keep their distance.
Read on, Dear Howlers and dig what Jin Mosley has to say about the state of boxing today, who her husband would like to meet in the ring, what she thinks of promoter Gary Shaw and what really went down regarding Diego Corrales having to turn down a lucrative offer by Golden Boy Promotions and how the Corrales family dealt with ‘Chico’s’ passing. I hope you find this piece as riveting and as enjoyable as I did conducting it. And stick around tomorrow for part two with Sugar Shane Mosley.
Coyote Duran: Is it true that when you first met Shane Mosley, you didn’t really care for boxing?
Jin Mosley: Yes, I didn’t know anything about boxing. I didn’t know who Oscar (De La Hoya) was. I was just thinking it was a hobby of Shane’s when he became a fighter. And the funny thing that we always laugh about is I asked him, “What’s your Plan B?”
Coyote Duran: (Laughs) There was no Plan B, was there?
Jin Mosley: Right, you know? (Laughs) He said, “There is no Plan B. If I can’t fight, then there’s no other option. He was pretty adamant about that, you know? When he’d speak to other fighters, he’d tell them, “I never had a Plan B. I knew that I never wanted to work for anyone else. In knew that if I wasn’t fighting, there would nothing else I’d wanna do.” With him knowing that was his only option, it forced him to be the best he could be.
Coyote Duran: With that in mind, and walking into the business as someone who really had no idea what went on in boxing plus with being a wife and mother, I would gather, you’re a natural-born worrier, aren’t you?
Jin Mosley: You know, I never was until I got with Shane! I was more of a free spirit and a fly-by-night type of girl. Now there’s so much responsibility and with all the kids and because there’s so much backstabbing and deceitful things going on in this business, it did make me a worrier.
Coyote Duran: Were you this business minded when you were younger? You mentioned that you were a free spirit. But was there always that need for throwing your hat into that sort of thing and taking command, even if not boxing, something generally business-related?
Jin Mosley: Yeah, in my life, I’m always in charge. I’m the take-charge type, decisive one. Even with all of my friends, they look for me to make the plan and execute and get things organized and together so I’ve always been that. The business side I just learned. I have a good common sense and I know people so that helps.
Coyote Duran: In your eyes, now that you know the ins and the outs, what hurts the sport of boxing the most?
Jin Mosley: (Thinking) Ah...It’s so much! It’s not just one thing. It’s a domino-effect of all of the things because now that I’ve gotten on the promotional side of it, you know, before I was a huge advocate for the fighters being mistreated and the fighters being screwed over. Now that I’ve gotten on the other side of it, I see that it goes both ways where with the fighters, they expect and demand so much and they really haven’t done anything. It’s everything. There’s just no real structure so without that, it’s just kind of a free-for-all. I mean, in basketball and football, there’s more of a game plan and more of a business structure to follow where in boxing, there’s no set salary for trainers…
Coyote Duran: No health care.
Jin Mosley: …No health care. I mean, there’s nothing! Everything you do, you either have to figure it out yourself or guess or just try to make the best of it. I’ve never seen a place where any Joe Shmoe can walk in off the street and like come in and pretend to do something whether he’s a nutritionist, whether he’s a strengthening coach, whether he’s claiming to be a promoter or a manager. It’s just like, “Oh, you know what? I’m gonna get into boxing. There’s a lot of money!” They find out the hard way that it’s not that easy.
Coyote Duran: In your estimation, aside from genuine trainers and participants who have the real experience in this sport, you’re basically saying that there are people who use a lot of smoke and mirrors to get what they want?
Jin Mosley: Yep. 80 percent of people in boxing do that.
Coyote Duran: What would you change personally if you had the ability based on what you’ve seen and experienced to day to make boxing a better sport?
Jin Mosley: I’d start off with educating the fighters. Educate the fighters and let them know what’s going on behind the scenes so therefore they can make judgment calls and better decisions. I don’t believe that once you get to a certain level, a manager is needed. It’s fine to have somebody manage your affairs and everything but on more of a broader level. A lot of managers around don’t do the necessary footwork. Like everybody has labeled me as Shane’s manager. I’m not really just his manager. I’m somebody who can take care of the little tedious things that a wife or an assistant or a friend would do for like other people. Kind of like an advisor or somebody who keeps everything under control and there’s so much that needs to be changed. It is changing! The Oscar-(Floyd) Mayweather fight was such a huge inclination of where boxing can be if it’s paid attention to. For so many years, (Top Rank head Bob) Arum and (Promoter Don) King, Main Events and all these other promoters have done the bare minimum and have not maximized the revenue or anything else. But the Oscar-Mayweather fight just generated such publicity and attention! And of course, because it’s Oscar, don’t get me wrong, but it was also because it was taken to another level as far as the (HBO documentary ‘De La Hoya-Mayweather’) ‘24/7’ went. They were advertising on Tecate beer and tequila and Southwest (Airlines). I mean, it was just splattered everywhere.
With the promoters, for so long there were ruined relationships. King and Arum had their time but they just didn’t evolve to where society and TV and reality TV is. With Golden Boy, it’s such a young and fresh crew who has great ideas. So we’ll see! I’m very excited to see where boxing is in the next five years.
Coyote Duran: Jin, you mentioned that you were seeing things from the promotional aspect of things. You also mentioned that you weren’t just a manager. Are you considering throwing your hat into the promotional ring or is this something that you might align yourself with under Golden Boy or something separate if anything?
Jin Mosley: Because Shane is a partner in Golden Boy, just like Bernard (Hopkins) and (Marco Antonio) Barrera are, he has a certain umbrella under which he brings in certain fighters. He is also their promoter. So, we have under our umbrella a couple of different fighters that we oversee. Like I said, I hate to use the word ‘manager’ and we’ve been trying to think of a better word like ‘advisor’ because I don’t take any management fees from fighters that we advise or help out or book hotel rooms for or anything like that. Once Shane retires, and…we own a boxing gym here in Pomona (California) and we’re in the process of selling it and relocating it to a different area and once we get the gym open and Shane starts winding down his career and ultimately retires, he’s going to get into the training and recruiting aspect of it where we’ll have a bunch of our own fighters but ultimately underneath the Golden Boy umbrella.
Coyote Duran: As a woman with authority, is it more common for the dyed-in-the-wool boy’s club types in boxing to nod and smile at you or do you think that many of them freely talk behind your back.
Jin Mosley: All of them talk behind my back. There’s two types of people that I’m around. Either they absolutely love me and say just great, great things about me or they absolutely hate me and say bad things. There’s no in-between like if you ever meet anybody and ask them about me, they’ll either say, “Oh, I looooove her!” or “Oh, I hate that bitch.” They’ll never be like, (In a sing-song voice) “Yeah, she’s OK.” In boxing, what’s so funny is…and I tell all the guys in boxing this, it’s a man’s soap opera. I’ve never seen such a bunch of gossiping, conniving men. They’re like women. That’s why I fit in so good! I love to gossip. I love the backstabbing that women are usually more prone to do so that’s why I fit in so good! It’s a male soap opera.
Coyote Duran: Although you do seem like a very strong enough person, does all the negativity that’s been thrown around about you just roll off you or when you’re alone with your own thoughts, does it ever get to you?
Jin Mosley: Never. You know why? Because even before this, I’ve had so many important things. I have a great family and I have great friends that surround me and my children and my husband. I have so many people who…(thinking)…I mean, a typical day for us is being around friends and family, laughing. I mean, there’s no time to sit and really think about what’s being said and I personally don’t care because usually the people who are saying it, I mean, they’re no better. So if you compare my faults to theirs, they should be killing themselves. I have a thick skin. I’m from New York, you know. I’m aggressive. I can’t think of one time it’s ever really…you know, I get more affected by what they say about Shane than by what they say about me. What they say about me is more comical. I mean, they’ve said horrible, horrible things and they’ll attack my looks or the way that I act and I’ve seen comparisons to other wives. I’ll sit here and it’ll be the middle of the night and I’ll be on my laptop in the bed and I’ll nudge Shane and I’ll say, “Shane, look at this. Isn’t this so funny? They’re comparing me to this one or that one.” I personally think it’s pretty funny. I’m confident in myself.
Coyote Duran: Imagine that if you were male, this wouldn’t even be an issue, I’d gather?
Jin Mosley: Not at all. How many of these guys have brothers or cousins or best friends that do what I do and not even as good as I do and it’s never an issue. But I take it that I’m doing something good because it does rile a lot of people up.
Coyote Duran: Is there room in boxing for more women or wives to help guide or at least assist in their husbands’ careers?
Jin Mosley: Yes. I think that all managers and assistants should be wives but it does depend on how much…this is not something that I’m just gonna say, “Oh, I’m gonna do that for today.” It’s like a constant ongoing, never-ending thing. I’m on the phone a million times a day with a million different people from boxing. Wives have the dedication and the smarts to deal with the negativity and deal with the guys and everything else. So I think yes, because you keep it all in the family and Shane gets to put the money back into the house or into the family and where it doesn’t have to go to advisor fees or unnecessary percentages out of his purse. I think it’s a good thing and I’ve seen a lot more wives getting involved.
Coyote Duran: Does being a mother and having that maternal instinct and that sense of organization give you an advantage?
Jin Mosley: I would say so. I think the only real advantage is that nobody’s gonna care about Shane more than I am. Other than that, it gets hard at times to juggle everything and to separate and to make the right choices. Like I said, in the beginning, it was hard when I would make a call and I wouldn’t know if it was the right decision. I’ve been pretty blessed enough to just go with the gut and that’s usually panned out but like I said, boxing is so unstructured that you never know what’s the right or wrong decision ‘til months later after the decision has been made.
Coyote Duran: You were very good friends with Diego and Michelle Corrales, yes?
Jin Mosley: Yeah.
Coyote Duran: Was there any truth to what had been said about perhaps you and Shane helping to possibly assist them and help guide Diego’s career at one time?
Jin Mosley: Let me say that the way that we and the Corraleses got close was a few years ago. I’d have to say four years ago, Michelle had approached me at a press conference and I had met her briefly in passing a couple of years before or a year. I don’t remember exactly when. When she reintroduced herself, I was familiar that I had met her before and she just had to ask me that if I ever had some time, she would just like to sit down and talk to me and ask me some questions and I said, “Yeah, fine!” and we actually, a couple days later, met and we all went to dinner. Shane and Diego had briefly met before through fighting or whatever but there was no real bonding or conversation so from the first dinner that we ever went to, instantly, we all just bonded and hit it off. From that very day, we became great friends and at the time and as I still am, if anybody ever came and asked me anything about boxing, I wouldn’t have anything to gain or hide or get anything from somebody so I’m always probably too honest and too up front. That’s something I haven’t mastered yet to kind of keep some of it to myself. At the time that we met, I was just realizing how corrupt boxing really is and how it’s so disgusting how these fighters are left just behind the scenes, just kind of left to just die, pretty much. So we sat down and they Diego and Michelle) asked a bunch of questions. We answered every question that we could which they were simple questions. At the time, they were pretty much…they didn’t know what they were entitled to. They had no idea about foreign rights. They had no idea about per diems on food, what you’re able to get on the week of the fight. Just anything from little things to huge things, they had no idea.
Coyote Duran: That really puts into perspective on what you said about fighters’ disadvantages because at the time, Corrales was very established at the time and for even him to not to know what simple entitlements he deserved, that tells you how ultimately screwed fighters really are from beginning to end.
Jin Mosley: Yep! It’s really sad! They’re kept in the dark and for whatever reason, they don’t really ask and nobody tells! So it’s like a ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. The fighters just wanna kinda get into the ring and just do the fighting and that was Shane too! Shane didn’t wanna deal with the meetings and the networking and the questions and the tediousness of food per diems and the little…bullshit stuff. So if you’re not overseeing that and watching that, you’re going to get taken advantage of at every possible angle. So that’s how we started off and it just grew from there. Whenever they (Diego and Michelle Corrales) had a question or a concern, they’d call up; we’d tell them what we knew because we’re kind of more involved in boxing. We would hear things, some things that were happening to Diego, you know, outside that he didn’t know too much about or behind the scenes and I would put them on to it and say, “Hey, I just heard this is going on. You might wanna double-check it. But, it wasn’t just a friendship on boxing. We went on countless vacations together. We spent the holidays together and we own a house three houses down from them. I mean, the children are very, very close. Michelle was just down here for Memorial Day weekend with her whole family; her mother, her brother. So, it began as a boxing friendship but it grew into something else. And I would never pressure or force somebody into doing business with us but Diego was very excited about Shane’s signing with Golden Boy and they spent countless times talking about the change in boxing and how it’s much needed.
You have to keep in mind that Diego always wished and hoped and planned to retire at 30. From the time we met him when he was 25 or however old he was, his ultimate goal was to retire at 30. He was somebody who would also be on the backside of boxing. When we saw a lot of the problems that were going on, you know, we just tried to advise them and it was Diego who came to us and talked about coming to Golden Boy and asked us to help him and asked what he needed to do and what steps needed to be taken for him to come over to Golden Boy. And that was ultimately the plan. We did sign him after he had not been able to track down a contract. The only signed contract he had that he was in had expired.
Coyote Duran: With Gary Shaw Promotions
Jin Mosley: Yep! He (Corrales) was told that there was another contract and he asked for it repeatedly. He had an attorney call up and ask for it. He called the Nevada commission and asked for a copy. Nobody produced a contract so for about two-and-a-half weeks this went on, and at the time, he was having IRS problems and needed very badly the signing bonus that we ultimately ended up giving to him. The picture likes to be painted that we swept in and forced him to sign this paper and he ended up signing a bad deal and that wasn’t the case. We gave him ample enough time for him to come up with a contract and the pressure was on because he didn’t want them to foreclose on his house. So it became a rushed situation because the IRS is breathing down his neck and he has all these different promoters coming at him but nobody’s saying anything and at the time, Gary had said he’ll give him (Corrales) the signing bonus. So, it was conflicted because at one point, he said he’d give him the signing bonus and in the next breath, he’s saying he still has a contract (with Corrales) for one or two more fights, whatever it was. So a signed contract from Gary came after about a week after we had given him (Corrales) the signing bonus that would’ve been repaid after his next three fights. You know, we could’ve fought it and we could’ve sued him and went to court and we just said, “You know what?...If…” (Changing gears)…You know, I’ll tell you, Diego called us up countless times and asked, “What should I do? Should I sue out of this contract? Should I hire a lawyer?” And I said, “You know what? You do what you wanna do. If you wanna do this one more fight, that’s fine.” You know, he said to me, expressed a huge concern, “If I do this, is Golden Boy gonna be mad and not wanna sign me?” I said, “Look, just do what you need to do and nobody’s gonna be mad.”
Coyote Duran: And what pressure that had to be on Diego being in financial dire straits and being caught between the two factions. It seemed, from my estimation, that Gary Shaw was bluffing Corrales into acquiescing.
Jin Mosley: Exactly. I mean, the bottom line is were we gonna get rich off Diego? No. You know, we just wanted to see our friends make better decisions and have a financial plan so he could retire. Not at 30. There was no way he was retiring at 30 but to retire at a reasonable age and have something left for the kids.
Coyote Duran: Regarding Shaw, I read, of course some very discouraging statements…
Jin Mosley: (Cutting in) Everything I wrote is 110 percent factual.
Coyote Duran: And that’s where I was going. That’s what I was wondering about because when I read that entire post, it didn’t seem like something that some random board poster would just put up. I was concerned because in light of Diego Corrales’ death, it just seemed, at the very least, dreadful that Gary Shaw would suggest even something as to not donate to his family; donate to your favorite charity in Diego’s name. It just seemed caustic.
Jin Mosley: Well, let me tell you how that all came about. The reason why I did that is that for the Oscar De La Hoya fight, Shane and I got into town on Tuesday. On Wednesday to Sunday, I was with Michelle. If you look at the Oscar tape, that was Michelle sitting next to me at the fight. We were with each other the whole week and, like I said, Michelle and I are very close and we (The Mosleys) had just left that Sunday going home and it was just weird because Shane and I said maybe we would just stay ‘til Monday but we missed the kids; we wanted to get home. We started the drive home. It’s a three-hour drive. We were 20 minutes from home when Michelle called us with that news. I mean, it was devastating. It was shocking. It was devastating. Our car was packed full. You couldn’t even see out the back window so we dropped everything off at home. We were here for 20 minutes and ran back into the car and drove back. Shane didn’t even have any sneakers on. He had to go and buy sneakers two days after being there.
We went straight back. The night we got there, we were at Michelle’s until seven in the morning talking. It was…it was just…even now, it’s still shocking. You just feel like Diego’s on a snowboarding trip or something.
Coyote Duran: One month later.
Jin Mosley: Exactly. It’s still not settled in. And so that next day, That Monday, that Tuesday, that Wednesday, we were all just… so many people came and supported her but we were non-stop for hours. Not one day in that two-week process did we get to bed before five a.m. We were at the mortuary. We viewed Diego’s body the very next day with her. She asked us to come. That Tuesday…I mean we were very hands-on with the funeral arrangements, picking up the casket. I mean, just down to everything. What killed me, and what just enraged me is on the Monday after he (Corrales) died, that morning, Gary still had not called but had sent word to Michelle to not worry about anything. He’ll take care of everything. I guess financially or whatever. And then what had happened is that as we’re at the mortuary that Monday, Gary had put out a press release that the services would be held that Thursday and we’re at the mortuary, mind you, looking at Diego’s body. This is the first time Michelle is seeing him. Our phones are all ringing off the hook from every reporter, from just everything. So word gets to us that he had made this statement that the services would be held Thursday. And so we were like, “What’s wrong with him?!” How do you make a press release? You don’t even contact the family? It’s so easy to be in New Jersey saying that we’re gonna do this, this and this but it took us, like, four hours to pick a casket! You know? So he’s doing all of this and I’m getting crazy because I’m, like, “Look, you know, we’re over here, we’re doing all of this footwork and he’s over there barking out these orders so…and Michelle’s in the middle not knowing what the heck to do. So I basically told her, I said, “Michelle, you can get it done by Thursday, of course. But not to the level that Diego deserves.”
You can just get this box and throw him,,,I mean, just to do a proper burial takes a few days and to do the bare minimum, yes, she could’ve done that but realistically, his mother hadn’t even gotten into California ‘til a week later. So, I mean to get everybody over there from out of town and booking rooms and everything wasn’t feasible to do for Thursday.
Coyote Duran: And for a fighter that’s given all of us so much, it wouldn’t have been anywhere enough.
Jin Mosley: (Adamantly) No! Let me just tell you something: Up until the day of the wake, they were running back and forth to Kinko’s and to printers getting the mass cards and getting all of these big blown-up…I mean, it took them four days to get his belts. I mean, it just wasn’t able to be done. No way. Like I said, if it was your old grandpa Jack, who was 80 years old and you’re just gonna bury him, fine. To pick the plot, to pick this, it was so time-consuming. I mean, for four days, we were at this mortuary for six hours. They would keep it open for us and the poor guy there worked overtime because it was just a sad…I mean, we’d look at the prayer cards and Michelle would just kind of break down. It was just very hard. So what had happened was that Gary got all pissed off because it wasn’t all convenient for him to get there on that Tuesday because of the Jermain Taylor-Cory Spinks fight. It basically came out of his mouth and he told somebody who told Michelle that, “Well, it’s better to do it now because Showtime and everybody’s gonna be wherever that fight was. It was like, OK, but this isn’t about you or about Showtime. It’s about his children and him having a proper memorial. And mind you, this whole time, I’m in the background. I don’t say anything. And it’s no secret to anybody in boxing: I hate Gary. And I don’t hate many people. There’s only two bridges I’ve burned in boxing and Gary is one of them. And it wasn’t the time. It wasn’t the place. This isn’t a Gary-Jin feud. This is a Diego memorial.
So, in al honesty, he had no idea that I was actually the one there doing everything with Michelle but he ultimately finds out and the next day, I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday. My phone’s ringing like crazy (with messages like) “Do you see this asshole Gary’s writing this crap about you?” and I had no idea. And I go and get on the computer and I read this article he did at Maxboxing (http://www.maxboxing.com/Kim/Kim050907.asp) and I hit the roof. And let me just say, and I need you to make this be known: To this day, Gary has not given Michelle a dollar towards the funeral like he so was adamantly expressing everywhere that he was paying for the funeral nor did he even send the family flowers. Not a dollar and not a flower. So, I mean, it just..it’s very sad and it was so disturbing to me that in light of all this, that here you are pretending and going on every internet station and anywhere anybody will talk to you and acting like you’re such an important part but, mind you, we’re the ones here with Michelle and Diego’s baby. There the ones…and you (to Shaw) have the nerve to paint our friendship in such an ugly picture. I mean, reading that Diego was feeling pressure? That is a lie! Let me tell you something: Diego hated Gary. If you would’ve pulled Gary’s phone records for the last two years and pulled Diego’s cell phone records, you would see zero calls. If anything, one or two. OK, he’s trying to paint this picture that he loved him. And let me just tell you: He painted the picture that I bought as house next to them (Michelle and Diego) to breathe down his neck or whatever he said. Michelle sold me that house and Diego was down there planning how we were gonna have block parties and everything else. Michelle wanted me to buy the house next door and she wanted me to build a hallway connecting the houses. I mean, she was the realtor who sold the property. So it just disgusted me in every way. I was just consumed with the hatred and I couldn’t do it right away but I wrote a rebuttal. Michelle sat right next to me reading it and she, in fact, reminded me of a lot of the incidences that took place that I forgot or was overwhelmed with because she was disgusted at what he was doing also. And she got so mad when he did that whole charity thing where we were setting up a foundation for the kids and he goes and messes it all up.
To this day, we’ll never know what the ramifications of that are because even now, people have told her (Michelle) brother or a cousin or a friend of a friend, “Oh, I made a donation to Alzheimer’s.” or to Parkinson’s in their (The Corraleses) name. (Exasperated) Well…great! So, we’ll never know what the true dollar amount ramifications to that were. So that was the reason (for Jin’s message board rebuttal) and that I had sent it out to a website that I had always used in the past and he (the publisher) refused to post it which I found odd. Because he claimed to be a great friend of Diego’s and hated the injustice that was done so I took it upon myself to put it on the message boards because I wanted people to know. And I ‘C.C. ‘ed and e-mailed it to the people I knew in boxing and I just wanted it to be known that all of it (Gary’s statements and sentiments) was lies and that this is what really happened and this is why Diego has zero money and this is why his children aren’t gonna have any money to live on or for scholarships or anything else.
Coyote Duran: Are Michelle Corrales and her children going to be OK in the future?
Jin Mosley: (After a long pause) It’s still up in the air now. I mean, (Another long pause) is she gonna survive? Yes. Is she gonna live to the means that she’s been living? Probably not. But you know, Michelle is a strong go-getter. What’s gonna be really hard is the fact that she’s eight months pregnant so working is not realistic right now. It’s not realistic in the next few months because her baby’s due in July. You know, between the mental and the physical aspects right now, it’s…I mean, she’s gonna survive. She has great family support; her mother, her brothers, her dad are so…I’ve never seen a more close-knit family so she does have that. But (Pauses) all of her dreams and all of her aspirations that she’s had for her and her children are…shattered.
We’re doing different things. I had Everlast commission a commemorative T-shirt and we’ll be selling those on another website and all proceeds of that are gonna go to Michelle. Showtime did a tribute to Diego and announced that any contributions…(Switches gears)…You know what’s cute is that she called me the other day and told me that she opened up a card that somebody had sent and they had sent 10 bucks (Laughs).
Coyote Duran: That is pretty sweet. Any little bit counts. And I’ll bet it made the giver feel good.
Jin Mosley: I mean, it’s really amazing! I mean, so many people were at that funeral. There was this one guy who came and he brought this picture and he had just saw Diego a week before the accident at an apartment complex. You could tell that he didn’t know Diego but he was just so shaken up by it because he said that just in that meeting of meeting Diego, he was so nice and humble and he took this picture and he (The man) came in his work clothes. He was like in a blue collar uniform and, you know, his eyes were a little watery and it was those things that would just…it would have been a dishonor to him to do some rushed funeral. The service was beautiful.
Michelle, she called me last night and she going to put together…she wants to put together an annual event in the name of Chico so he’s not forgotten and so that the kids have something to live on and what I’m gonna do is, once I get everything together, I’m gonna ask all of the fans to write a little letter about what they knew or remembered about Chico and so we can have that and put it in a book and save it for the unborn baby. The sad thing is that these little ones will never know their father.
Coyote Duran: Onto a lighter topic, tell me about Jin Mosley, the wife and mother away from boxing.
Jin Mosley: God, is there ever an ‘away from boxing’? (Laughs) You know, every day right now, all I’m waiting for right now is when Shane’s next fight is so I can plan our family vacation and go away. The kids get out of school in two weeks. Um,...you know we have five kids!
Coyote Duran: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Jin Mosley: There’s never really…I mean, it’s always hectic here. I have four boys that are maniacs. And the two older ones are always fist-fighting. The two younger ones are always fist-fighting and Dad loves it. Boxing is never too far from this house. At least every day, I see boxing gloves, whether they’re my husband’s or the little kids’.
Coyote Duran: Does it make you cringe if any of the children actually hint at fighting professionally someday?
Jin Mosley: You know, Little Shane, who is 16, for years has shown no interest in anything. We put him in football. We did that for a little while and he didn’t like it. He did wrestling. He didn’t like that. And in this last year, he has shown such an interest in boxing where he’s riding his bike because he’s on some kind of punishment now because he’s had a brand-new Jetta since December and hasn’t gotten his license so I refuse to drive him anywhere. He’s been riding his bike, no lie, about…(Pause)…more than three miles…a total of, I’d say, eight miles. Four miles to the gym, four miles back. And I was like, “Yeah, let me see how long he’s gonna do this.” But he’s been doing it. He’s been coming home. He’s been shadowboxing. He’s been working out. He’s planning on going to the 2012 Olympics so he really shows an interest. My six-year old, who’s a complete, total lunatic and is fearless, has shown a huge interest but he just told me last week he’s gonna be a race car driver. But all my kids, and which is funny, is that they’ll sit and watch boxing, no matter who it is. Not my daughter. My daughter could care less. If she sees Shane fighting on the TV, she watches it and then she doesn’t even pay attention. She’s like, “Oh, that’s Daddy.” and then she goes and plays. But all the boys are. They’re all just all into it. They’re all really, really good kids. You know, I was so against it before but, honestly, since Golden Boy had come on, we’ve had no problems and I’m so hard to please. I’ve had problems with every other promoter and they’ve (Golden Boy) just been such a breath of fresh air that I don’t mind now if Little Shane wants to get involved in it because I know he’ll be OK.
Coyote Duran: As far as Big Shane is concerned, you mentioned discussions as to what his next fight would be. Any names coming up?
Jin Mosley: You know, Shane wants this Floyd Mayweather fight and there’s a lot of misinformed things out there as far as the last November thing, you know. Things get so misconstrued in boxing and this is what pisses me off. Everybody says Shane turned down a third fight with De La Hoya for 12 million. It was never 12 million! No matter how many times I say this, it’ll go right back on saying it was 12 million. It was never 12 million. If it was 12 million, he would’ve did the fight. With Floyd Mayweather, he says that Shane turned down fights back in the day. That’s a lie. Shane can pull video of when he’s saying he’ll fight Floyd. Then the whole November thing. The only reason that didn’t happen was because Shane said, and this is exactly what happened, is that once Shane found out Mayweather was being offered eight million to fight (WBO welterweight titlist Antonio) Margarito, he said, “Well, shoot, for eight million, I’ll fight him (Mayweather).” And they were saying, “No, it’s not eight million. It’s four million.” And Shane was like, “Look, I just did two back-to-back fights with (Fernando) Vargas. I’ve been away from home for six months of the whole 2006 and either I do this fight in February for whatever the money or I’ll get myself up for it in November if you guarantee me eight million. If you don’t give me eight million, we’ll do it in February for six million, five million, whatever it is.” And Mayweather claims he’s the draw and he’s this and he’s that and didn’t wanna take it. That’s when the Oscar-Mayweather fight got made. And that’s the true story so now getting to his next fight, Shane has made it clear that he wants to fight Mayweather. But he doesn’t need to fight him. If he doesn’t he’ll fight (WBA welterweight titlist Miguel) Cotto, Zab (Judah), I mean, whatever. Floyd thinks he’s huge. Everybody in boxing is not selling press to Floyd. That’s the funny thing. He’s got a lot of the fan base hyped up with his trash talking but in the inner circle, he just hasn’t reached the real competition. De La Hoya, in many peoples’ eyes and in many professional peoples’ eyes, won that fight.
And now Mayweather’s claiming to retire, but then in the same breath, he’s saying he’ll give Oscar a rematch, which we know why: Because of the money which is great, smart, blah, blah, blah, but really, in all honesty, from a warrior’s spirit, if you really knew you won that fight, when does the winner beg for a rematch? I mean, it just that stupid! That’s the difference between Shane and him. Shane is not motivated by money. He’s motivated by the fight and Floyd is motivated by money which is the great business, smart sense move, but it depends on how you look at it. A lot of these true old school fighters are more about the fight than they about the money. Shane told him, “You keep your belt. I don’t wanna fight for the belt. You just fight me for pound-four-pound status. Whoever wins is the pound-for-pound best.
Coyote Duran: Well, to be frank with you, the 154 pound (WBC) belt that Floyd’s got now is crap anyhow.
Jin Mosley: Oh, yeah.
Coyote Duran: The one that’s more important right now is his welterweight belt, The Ring Magazine belt.
Jin Mosley: Yeah. Yeah, that’s what Shane said. But right now, he’s not holding his breath to fight him. Shane’s confident that he beats him so…now it’s all about him and if he doesn’t take the fight, fine. Shane fights somebody else. But Shane’s made it clear and you can ask him this: He’ll be retiring after his next fight.
Coyote Duran: Really? After his next fight?
Jin Mosley: Well, he wants to have his next fight this year, at the end of this year and next year, he has a lot of business opportunities and a lot of things that he’s been putting off like with our boxing gym. He wants to be able to dedicate a lot of time with this long stretch off. He’s realized that he loves training his son and he wants to be able to get his son ready for the Olympics and he doesn’t like this waiting game.
Coyote Duran: One and done, huh?
Jin Mosley: Yep! And you’re the first person that he’ll be telling that to. But you’ll never know how retirement goes, but Shane has never really been one to follow what’s the fad and he just loves his position at Golden Boy. He loves that our oldest son is showing interest in boxing so he just needed the right deterrent.
Coyote Duran: I had a great time talking to you, Jin. Thank you!
Jin Mosley: Thank you! No one will believe you but thank you!
Many thanks to Jin Mosley for her valuable time, generosity and detail. Part two with Sugar Shane Mosley coming up tomorrow.
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