For Shane Mosley Jnr, the main event he’ll forever remember is his Hall of Fame father’s 2000 dual homecoming showdown versus Oscar De La Hoya at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Muhammad Ali was there among the sellout crowd. The action from the opening to closing bell was gripping. Mosley Snr won the fight.

“That fight changed my life,” Mosley Jnr, now 35, told BoxingScene. “After that fight, everyone knew who ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley was. It made him a superstar. Yes, he was already unbeaten with a lot of knockouts, but none of that mattered because he hadn’t beat ‘The Golden Boy.’

“When he beat ‘The Golden Boy’ convincingly, it made him a superstar and that changed my life. … We moved to a different area and all that.” 

Sunday night, atop a Zuffa Boxing card in Las Vegas on Paramount+, Mosley Jnr gets his own major main event, a middleweight showdown against former WBC interim 154lbs titleholder Serhii Bohachuk that will strongly position the winner for a Zuffa belt and a likely run of significant bouts in a glamour division of the new promotion.

“Isn’t it amazing? I haven’t had a main event since [meeting Brandon Adams on ‘The Contender’ in 2018] and I’m so excited,” Mosley Jnr said. “I fought for a world title last time. For [Zuffa] to say, ‘We believe in you, we believe you’re a main event with us,’ I’m so excited, and so thankful for Zuffa and Bohachuk. What an incredible opportunity.”

Mosley, 22-5 (12 KOs), is coming off a December unanimous decision loss (117-111, 116-112, 117-111) for the WBC interim middleweight title to Jesus Ramos Jnr.

“I feel like I needed to box him more. I let him get me into a brawl. If I had stayed boxing him, I feel I would have won,” Mosley said. “I was very close to winning a world championship myself. Just a few tweaks, a few little changes and I could’ve beat Jesus Ramos. Every fight is a lesson. If you change a few things, you get better. That’s what I feel I’m going to do.”

A few months ago, Mosley took the opportunity to meet Zuffa brass and attend one of its cards at the Meta Apex, where he will fight Ukraine’s Bohachuk, 27-3 (24 KOs), Sunday night.

“You look at the body of work. Look at the people [Nick Khan, Dana White] involved and what they do,” Mosley said. “They’ve created the UFC, the WWE, they’re on Paramount.

“Why not be a part of that? I’ve been a part of the old way of boxing for a very long time. Why not give this a try? Why not see what they can do? Because I’ve seen what they’ve done with other things. You can nitpick all you want about these other things, but they’re being seen, and I wanted to be part of that. The fact that they see the potential in me to be a star, where a lot of other promotions [have not]. … Like I said, I’ve been with Golden Boy ever since I got off ‘The Contender,’ and they never felt I was worth being a main event.

“In my first fight with [Zuffa], they do.”

That said, Mosley takes pride in knowing he didn’t take a silver-spoon approach to this destination, defeating the likes of former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs and veteran contender Gabriel Rosado while enduring losses to others, including Jason Quigley.

“You need to go through taking the bumps and bruises and having those experiences that helped me make informed decisions,” Mosley said.

Part of the experience was the angst of three breaks of more than 10 months.

“I do feel [Zuffa] will keep me more [active], with fight cards on a regular [schedule],” Mosley said. “I’ve had stints when I wasn’t fighting for [many] months … that’s hard. I would prefer the consistency.”

Having reviewed the recent work of Bohachuk, who lost his WBC 154lbs belt to unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jnr and was upset by Adams in September before winning his Zuffa debut on February 1, Mosley said he can win by leaning into “My focus, my sharpness and ability to keep my balance.

“I need to be the very best Shane Mosley I can be, and I feel that guy beats Serhii Bohachuk. I feel Serhii Bohachuk is a freight train. If you let him get going, he’s going to run you over. The guys who have beat him haven’t allowed that. If I just stay on my game plan and stay at my best, that beats him. If I win, I feel I’ll be in position for our title.”

Being able to consult with a legend of this generation along with decorated trainer-grandfather Jack Mosley is invaluable.

“I talk to them a lot. I always have them with me and I love hearing from them as my father and grandfather … about fighting, and to hear their spirit and love,” Mosley Jnr said. “I have so much boxing knowledge in my head and so many great experiences. I’ve had a lot and I think it’s going to help me.”

He said entering the sport and choosing Zuffa were his decisions alone.

“I felt this was a good thing for me,” he said.

It was similar to when he opted on his own to box, years after the Mosley-De La Hoya I bout.

“I got punched in the mouth,” Mosley Jnr said, “and loved it.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.