Shane “Sugar” Mosley, born in September 7, 1971, holds several world titles in three weight divisions. Holding a fighting record of 46 wins, 5 losses with 1 no contest and 39 knockouts; Mosley has never been knocked out or stopped in his boxing fights. A native boxer of Pomona, California, “Sugar” is currently the WBA Welterweight Super champion. During the early part of his career, he personally trained himself from 1992-2004. He also sought Joe Goossen to become his trainer in 2004. He worked with John David Jackson in 2005. This year, he is currently trained by Nazim Richardson, which is best known for his work with Bernard Hopkins.

Every success story is not without struggle. Sugar Shame Mosley scaled and climbed every mountain to become a great boxer. He managed to fight his way towards winning world championship titles at lightweight, welterweight and junior middleweight divisions. His fighting achievements made him known as one of the best fighters of this boxing era. His alias, “Sugar”, became a household name to many boxing enthusiasts; “Sugar” as in being owned in the league of other known “Sugars” such as Robinson and Leonard. He had overcome the odds of turning into a boxing pro. Through his years of dominating the boxing arena, Shane Mosley came up the hard way; winning fights and fighting the best competitions which eventually won him three world titles with the 1998 Fighter of the Year award.

Even as an amateur fighter, success was expected from Shane Mosley. He has won most of the titles in the amateur boxing division. During the period of years, from 1989 to 1992, he became the United States Amateur Champion at lightweight (1989), World junior Championships (1989), United States Amateur Champion at lightweight (1990), bronze medalist of the Goodwill Games in Seattle, USA (1992) and the United States Champion at welterweight division (1992). All in all, he compiled an amateur record of 250+ wins. The critics have said that Mosley’s stepping up to boxing pro is destined for stardom.

Shane Mosley’s February 11, 1993 fight against the former California state champion Greg Puente marked his debut in professional boxing. In this five-round blowout, he defeated Puente. However, due to promotional difficulties, Mosley was only noticed in the boxing scene until he brought a 23-0 record with 22 knockouts when he defeated the IBF lightweight champion Phillip Holiday. His display of brilliance in speed, power and ring savvy trashed Holiday at a twelve-round fight, walking away with a new world title. This was followed by yet another achievement. In his following fight, Sugar defeated Manuel Gomez by knockout at round eleven.

Throughout his career as a pro boxer, Shane Mosley has achieved much, defeating many of the best known names in the boxing world. He is famous for having been an undefeated lightweight champion, defending his 34-0 record nine times before moving up two divisions and facing Oscar de la Hoya, whom he defeated in 2000 to take the welterweight title. Today, Shane Mosley remains a big name in the sport, with his matches being followed enthusiastically by fans.

Earvin Johnson Jr., better known to us as “Magic” Johnson was born in 1959 in Lansing, Michigan. He started playing basketball seriously while a student at Everett High School in Lansing, MI and played at Michigan State as well - however, he was drafted by the LA Lakers in 1979. The son of a General Motors worker and a school custodian, Johnson was born into a large family and discovered his love of basketball as a child. Johnson claims that he even slept with his basketball!

It was while still in high school that Johnson acquired his famous nickname. A sportswriter covering a high school game felt that no other word could adequately describe Johnson’s skill with the ball. Johnson wanted to stay near his family after high school, so he attended Michigan State also in East Lansing. Even on the Michigan State Spartans, he achieved some notoriety, with scores of up to 17 in a single game. With Johnson, the Spartans took a Big Ten conference title and racked up a 25-5 record! In his second year on the team, the Spartans took on Indiana State (then featuring Larry Bird) to won the national title in what was one of the most highly followed NCAA games of all time.

Johnson made the decision to go professional and entered into the 1979 draft. Johnson was quickly drafted by the LA Lakers. LA fans were eager to see this famed college player wear the Lakers uniform and he didn’t disappoint them. While the NBA’s Rookie if the year award went to Larry Bird that year, Magic Johnson did help the Lakers to win the NBA championship in his first season, achieving an impressive 60-22 record. The Lakers were unstoppable the next season as well, with Johnson becoming the first rookie to start in an All Star game since the late sixties.

In the 1980 NBA finals, Johnson scored an incredible 42 points, 15 board, 7 assists and three steals against the Philadelphia 76ers. Johnson was the first rookie to win the MVP award in the NBA finals. Magic Johnson is a modest sort, saying only of his achievement: “I just wanted to do whatever the (Lakers) needed to do to win. I was having fun.” Sadly, torn cartilage in his knee would keep him on the sidelines for 45 games in the following season.

Johnson recovered from his injury and the Lakers came back in a big way for the 1981-1982 season. The Lakers handily won their division title and again took on the 76ers in the finals, with another win for the Lakers and another MVP award for Johnson. While Johnson took some heat for the comments he made about Lakers coach Paul Westhead (who was replaced by the now legendary Pat Riley and left himself for the Chicago Bulls), he never let the criticism get to him and his performance in the game was never less than astounding.

In 1984, Johnson signed a $25 million contract with the Lakers. It was a good investment for the team, which captured three of the next four NBA titles. Johnson would also score a stunning 38 points in a game against Houston and an even more incredible 46 in a match-up with Sacramento in the 1986-1987 season. This season also saw Johnson’s career-high scoring average of 23.9 points per game. Johnson would win the NBA’s MVP award this season; an honor he would also receive in 1989 and 1990.

Prior to the 1991-92 season, Magic made the announcement that he had tested positive for the HIV virus and would be retiring. He did play at the All-Star game that year and won the game’s MVP Award, but at this point in his career, Magic turned to outreach-for HIV and AIDS and received the leagues J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Not one to be kept down, Magic played for the 1992 US Olympic “Dream Team, wrote a book on safe sexual practices, and ran several businesses. He worked for NBC as a sports commentator and with only sixteen games left in the 1993-94 season, he took the offer of replacing Randy Pfund as the Lakers head coach.

Magic Johnson, in his thirteen NBA seasons came away with 17,707 points, 19.5 points per game average, 6,559 rebounds, and 10,141 assists. He also had an impressive 1,724 steals placing him at ninth place on the all-time list. In 1996-97, he was invited to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team and in 2002, he entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Magic was a star in basketball and perhaps a former NBA player who knew him best, said it best-”Magic is head-and-shoulders above everybody else. I’ve never seen anybody as good as him,”-Larry Bird.