By Robert Morales

"Sugar" Shane Mosley has never shied away from fighting the toughest hombre available. He lost for the first time against Vernon Forrest in January 2002, a fight in which Mosley was decked and absorbed more punishment than he had ever taken in losing by five, nine and 10 points.

Many fighters would have been leery about a rematch, but Mosley fought Forrest again six months later. Mosley did better, but lost a closer unanimous decision.

In March 2004, Mosley fought and lost a wide decision to Winky Wright. Undaunted, Mosley squared off with Wright again eight months later and lost a much closer majority decision.

In other words, Mosley is not easily discouraged. That's why if he gets past Ricardo Mayorga a week from Saturday at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., Mosley next wants welterweight champion Antonio Margarito.

Margarito is coming off an 11th-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Miguel Cotto in July. Like Forrest and Wright, Margarito is taller and longer than Mosley. At 30, Margarito is also seven years Mosley's junior. But it's not in Mosley's nature to take the easy road.

"I've definitely always had that fire in my belly, even when I was a young kid," Mosley said Wednesday, during a telephone conversation from his training camp in Big Bear. "It's the competitive nature in me. If I can be the best, I am going to give myself a shot to be the best out there."

Margarito would have loved to take on Oscar De La Hoya in his next fight, but De La Hoya has chosen to fight lightweight Manny Pacquiao instead. That matchup may not be the best thing for boxing in some aspects. But it gives Mosley the opportunity to push for his own fight against Margarito, who became an instant superstar with his
destruction of Cotto.

Thus, Mosley's calling out of Margarito.

"He's considered the best welterweight out there and I like to fight the best fighters out there," said Mosley, 37. "It would be a great fight. He comes and I would definitely have to be in tip-top shape to withstand the pressure and come with my own stuff as well." 

Eight months before Margarito dispatched Cotto, Mosley nearly beat Cotto in a good fight in New York City. Cotto escaped with a close unanimous decision, but Mosley said that Margarito must have seen his fight with Cotto and noticed that Cotto was backpedaling a lot against him and not throwing as many body punches as usual.

Mosley said he knew from about the second round that Margarito would eventually walk down Cotto and stop him. But Mosley said he has a much better idea of how Mexicans go about their business in the ring because he is from California and has sparred with many terrific Mexican fighters over the years. Former world champions Zachary Padilla and Chicanito Hernandez are two of them.

"He just basically walked Cotto down and Cotto just couldn't withstand the pressure," Mosley said. "With me, I'm quick and I got fast feet and I understand the Mexican type of fighting. They walk you down in the later rounds and they knock you out.

"I understand that kind of fighting because I'm fighting out of California. In some cases they call me the 'Black Mexican' because I fight like that, too. I seen a lot of things I can do with Margarito."

Mosley, who has won titles in three weight classes, said he is not overlooking Mayorga. Mayorga (29-6-1, 23 KOs) may be lacking in technical skills, but Mosley said he knows he packs a wallop. But if that business is successfully completed, look for Mosley (44-5, 37 KOs) to go hard after Margarito.

House of Pain

It was June 28, about 11:30 p.m. Several boxing writers were sitting in an all-night restaurant inside Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, where Pacquiao had just knocked out David Diaz to win the lightweight world championship.

Suddenly, Steven Luevano passed by the reporter-filled table. His 27-year-old baby face was bruised and beaten like never before. Luevano had retained his featherweight world title by fighting Mario Santiago to a 12-round draw on the undercard of Pacquiao-Diaz. But Luevano looked like he must have lost.

"Hey," Luevano said, as he slowly strolled by with family and friends.

As a slick, left-handed fighter, Luevano has always been known more for his superior technical skills. But he showed against Santiago that he can slug it out, that he can withstand a brutal assault without caving in.

Luevano and Santiago exchanged knockdowns in one early round, and Santiago almost stopped Luevano in an ensuing round. That Luevano earned a draw said a lot about his intestinal fortitude. 

His promoter, Bob Arum, said Tuesday afternoon that Luevano probably made himself a hotter commodity in that fight because of its vicious nature. But he's not sure he wants his young champion to make a habit of engaging in too many such fights.

"The down side is, how many more exciting fights can the kid have to where it shortens his career?" Arum said. "So you trade one thing off for another. Everybody now who follows the sport, every time Steven is in a fight, they're going to think they're going to see a lot of action. To that extent, he has really helped his career."

Luevano, of La Puente, Calif., is currently training for his fourth title defense. He will take on Billy Dib (21-0, 11 KOs) on Oct. 18 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik fight.

Luevano was reached via telephone Tuesday evening after he finished his training in Oxnard, about 70 miles west of La Puente. Asked to respond to his promoter's comments, Luevano doled out some interesting thoughts of his own.

"I think I have a lot to still fight like that because I'm not that old and I haven't fought a lot of fights like that," Luevano said. "That was like my second one that was really brutal like that, taking a lot of punches and getting hit a lot. My first one was against Martin Honorio. I thought he hit a lot harder than Santiago did."

Honorio handed Luevano (35-1-1, 15 KOs) his only loss via close unanimous decision in November 2005.  OK, so Luevano believes he can get into more scrapes like that.

But he admitted he doesn't really want to.

"I don't plan on fighting like that anymore unless I have to, which I don't think I have to," he said. 

Luevano said he understands that fans love knockdown, drag-out fights. But that doesn't mean he is crazy about them.

"I see why people get angry when fighters are more boxing than beating each other's brains out," he said. "I like watching fights like that. But me knowing that it could hurt me later on, I would rather just be in a boring fight than an exciting fight."

Incidentally, Luevano said the facial bruises sustained against Santiago went away in a couple of days. That's hard to believe because he looked like he had gotten into a fight where the other guy had a bat and he didn't.

Promotional Paradise

Arum has two notable cards upcoming. First there is Pavlik-Hopkins and then Pacquiao-De La Hoya less than two months later on Dec. 6 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

On the surface it might seem that the promotion for De La Hoya-Pacquiao could overshadow the promotion for Pavlik-Hopkins. Love or hate the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight, it is still the much more high-profile event of the two.

But Arum, chairman of the board of Top Rank Inc., scoffed at that notion and said he plans on using the promotional tour for Pacquiao-De La Hoya as a way to solidify interest in Pavlik-Hopkins.

"I think that in a way the hoopla over De La Hoya-Pacquiao helps Pavlik-Hopkins because it concentrates people's thoughts on boxing," said Arum, who promotes Pacquiao and Pavlik. "I'm of the school that believes that the more hullabaloo there is about the different aspects of a sport, that helps me sell my promotion.

"When I go out on the tour at the beginning of October for five days with De La Hoya and Pacquiao, writers will be coming who normally don't cover boxing and they will be reporting on boxing. With my mouth, I will let everyone know we have another great fight coming and that is Pavlik-Hopkins."

Arum said that since De La Hoya promotes Hopkins under his Golden Boy Promotions banner, he, too, will take advantage in that same manner.

"I think it will be a tremendous boost for Pavlik and Hopkins and I'm really excited about the way tickets are going for that fight because we are moving toward a sellout," Arum said.

Golden Tickets

Bill Caplan, Arum's longtime personal publicist, said Tuesday that the MGM Grand is already a virtual sellout for De La Hoya-Pacquiao. Caplan said that Top Rank, Golden Boy, MGM Grand and Pacquiao all were asked to shorten their orders for tickets just enough so that there will be 500 tickets made available to the public. Caplan said that once those tickets do go on sale, they will be "gone in 15 minutes."

Forrest-Marquez?

Perhaps the best part of Saturday's post-fight news conference at MGM Grand came with Vernon Forrest at the microphone. Forrest had just won back his super welterweight title with a lopsided unanimous decision over Sergio Mora. Their fight preceded the lightweight bout between Juan Manuel Marquez and Joel Casamayor, won by Marquez via 11th-round technical knockout.

Forrest talked some trash about Mora, finished and said his good-byes to those in attendance. But, wait, there was more. 

"One more thing," Forrest said. "Since De La Hoya is fighting Pacquiao, why not let me fight Juan Manuel Marquez in my next fight? It's the same thing."

De La Hoya, who co-promoted Saturday's event, was standing on the dais at the time. He did his best to keep smiling as Forrest then walked up and shook his hand. And the crowd roared. Mosley was not there, but he was told about Forrest's comments and asked what he thought about them and the whole idea of De La Hoya, a super welterweight, taking on Pacquiao the lightweight at welterweight.

Mosley is a partner in De La Hoya's promotional company. While he did admit that a loss by De La Hoya would be a bad thing, he reminded this reporter that it was Pacquiao who went after De La Hoya.

Mosley also said that Forrest-Marquez would not be quite the same as De La Hoya-Pacquiao, even though the respective weights classes match.

"Manny gets a lot bigger than Marquez," Mosley said, speaking in terms of fight-night weight. "I think it's almost like (welterweight champion) Paul Williams. Paul Williams (who is at least 6-foot-2) can fight at 168. Can "Sugar" Shane fight at 168? I don't know. It would take a lot of burgers and cake to fight at 168. Vernon could probably fight at 170, but Oscar couldn't. It's different."

Like Father, Like Son

Mosley said his 17-year-old son, Shane Jr., is 4-1 as an amateur and looking better all the time. 

"He has all the tools," Mosley said of his son, a high school senior. "Good jab, right hand. I want to make his foot movement a little faster. His punching power is good. He takes a good punch. He is going to be the type of fighter who can be a crowd pleaser."

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, ESPN.com, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com