By Mark Vester

The ongoing legal battle between Shane Mosley and Victor Conte, founder of the BALCO lab, is taking some wild twists and turns. The two sides were unable to reach any type of settlement at a conference held on Thursday in a Manhattan court. Mosley was using drugs from the BALCO lab prior to the 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. The fighter has always claimed that he was never informed about the dangerous and illegal nature of the drugs he was injecting during training camp. The lawsuit erupted in 2008 after Conte told reporters in several interviews that Mosley knew exactly what he was taking and the nature of the drugs were clearly explained to him.

A video was posted on Youtube several days ago by Conte, where Mosley admits, during a video deposition, that he knew Conte had provided him with EPO, a banned performance enhancer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JMIB7g1mq0

"You knew it was EPO that day, correct?" asked Conte's attorney, Tom Harvey.

"Um, I, yeah, I guess, I knew it was something, yeah," said Mosley, nervously.

Since Mosley had maintained Conte tricked him, Harvey asked Mosley for clarification.

"Prior to going to the grand jury, in December of 2003, did you know that you were taking EPO, yes or no?"

Mosley eyes darted back and forth for a few seconds. Then he shrugged and said, "Yes."

Mosley then stole a quick glance at his own counsel, who couldn't have been thrilled with the response (elsewhere in the deposition Mosley claimed he learned he took EPO months later, when a BALCO grand juror told him).

"Mosley admits under oath he took EPO," said Conte to the New York Daily News. "He admits I explained how dangerous it was. He admits it would help for performance-enhancing purposes. And he admits that he took it before anyone could have checked with the boxing commission. Shane Mosley knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs."

Mosley's attorney Judd Burstein told the NY Daily News that he's very, very confident the legal battle will be won by Mosley.

"Half of me is disappointed that I can't just put all this behind for Shane," Burstein said. "But on the other hand, destroying Mr. Conte in a courtroom is something I would almost pay to do. I can hardly think of an activity that would be more fun to do, and easy. He'd be slinking off the witness stand trying to see if he can wear Groucho Marx glasses to disguise his identity. There's a very good chance that my dog could win this case. It's a toy red poodle."

And Conte fired back at Burstein. Sprinter Marion Jones had also sued Conte in 2004. Jones claimed she never knew Conte had supplied her with illegal drugs. She later changed her story, lost the case and was sent to prison.

"Even Judd Burstein's poodle could figure out Shane Mosley knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs," Conte said. "The Mosley case is simply the Marion Jones case with boxing gloves. It didn't turn out too well for Marion Jones either."

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingvester@gmail.com