MOSLEY GETS SEAL OF APPROVAL.

Byline: Associated Press

Sugar Shane impressed Sugar Ray on Tuesday night in The Theatre at Madison Square Garden.

``It takes a special man to carry the name Sugar and I think Mosley can do it,'' Ray Leonard said after Shane Mosley of Pomona knocked down Eduardo Morales of Argentina twice and stopped him at 2:06 of the fifth round to retain the IBF lightweight title.

``He puts up impressive numbers, especially against tough opponents, and gets better every fight,'' said Leonard, who, with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, was an analyst for the TNT telecast. ``He's a seasoned professional fighter.''

Mosley's victory followed a unanimous decision by Angel Manfredy over John Brown in defense of the super featherweight title of the fringe WBU.

Mosley, showing tremendous hand speed and quick, intelligent movement, dominated the top-ranked Morales from the outset. The champion, who weighed 135 pounds, knocked down Morales, 134, with a stiff left jab and two hooks to the body in the third round. The challenger got up at the count of five.

In the fifth round, Mosley (29-0, with 27 knockouts) battered Morales with head punches and then knocked him down with a right hand. Morales rose at six but, after a flurry of punches, referee Arthur Mercante Jr. stopped the bout at 2:06.

It was Morales' first loss against 27 wins.

``I knew he was strong,'' said the 27-year-old Mosley, who trains in Los Angeles. ``I knew it would take time. I was better.''

The Manfredy-Brown fight was action-packed from the first to the final bell as Brown kept coming forward and firing while Manfredy counterpunched.

``He's tough,'' Manfredy said. ``My experience won the fight.''

Two officials scored it for Manfredy by three points and another by five, although that margin appeared too wide.

``It's politics,'' Brown said. ``They gave it to him.''

Brown was penalized a point in the 10th round when he was warned for the third and fourth times for low blows by referee Wayne Kelly. After the fight, Manfredy didn't complain of the low blows but did say, ``He head-butted me too much. The referee didn't do a good job.''

It was a head butt by the champion that opened a cut over Brown's left eye in the last round.

The best round of the fight was the seventh when Brown shook Manfredy with eight or nine head shots late, only to have Manfredy come back with a terrific left hook and four or five head punches.

Manfredy, 130, of Gary, Ind., is 25-2-1 with 19 knockouts. Brown, 130, of Atlantic City, is 18-5.

Also on the card, Masibulele Makepula, 107-1/4, of South Africa won the vacant WBU junior flyweight championship on a technical decision when Rafael Torres, 108, was unable to continue after being hit low in the fifth round.

Makepula (14-0, 11 KOs) was dominating the fight when he hit Torres (15-7) low with a right hand with 38 seconds left in the fifth round.