Shane Mosley

Aging boxers If the mega-fight boxing fans dream of — Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. — happens, it won't be until 2012. By next year Mayweather will be 35, Pacquiao 33. Most boxers in their early 30s start to slow down. The records of some celebrated boxers after they turned 33: Boxer; Wins-Losses-Draws after 33rd birthday; age at last fight. Muhammad Ali; 11-3-0; 39. Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.; 14-5-1; 43. Oscar De La Hoya; 2-2-0; 35. Roberto Duran; 26-10-0; 50. Sugar Ray Leonard; 1-2-1; 40. Shane Mosley; 7-4-1; 39.

Shane Mosley, frustrated by his inability to win the fame and fortune of Oscar De La Hoya despite winning the only professional fight between them, is leaving promoter Cedric Kushner after Saturday night's fight against Vernon Forrest in the Theater at Madison Square Garden. In the future, Mosley, an undefeated welterweight from Pomona, plans to use whichever promoter is offering the best deal for a particular fight.

Alex Garcia, heavyweight champion of the North American Boxing Federation, will be the featured performer tonight when the monthly boxing program at the Irvine Marriott starts its 10th year. Garcia (33-3 with 26 knockouts) is one of the better fighters to appear on a "Battle in the Ballroom" card. Garcia, from San Fernando, takes on George O'Mara (14-8) of Los Angeles in a 10-round non-title bout. O'Mara has eight knockouts.

HBO has followed Yuriorkis Gamboa's lead and backed out of participating in the April 14 Brandon Rios fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Promoter Bob Arum told The Times on Wednesday that his Top Rank company had filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Gamboa for pulling out of the scheduled bout that would pit the unbeaten featherweight champion against unbeaten ex-lightweight champ Rios at 135 pounds. "Gamboa just said he wasn't fighting," Arum said. "The kid is crazy.

Ten months ago, in the despair of a hard-fought unanimous-decision loss to then-world welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, Pomona's Shane Mosley admitted retirement crossed his mind. He resolved instead to fight on, insisting he'd restrict his future bouts only to major events. Mosley (44-5, 37 knockouts) was pitted in a non-title fight against another veteran beaten by Cotto, Zab Judah. But when Judah was injured in a training camp tantrum, Mosley's May bout was canceled.

Saturday night's rematch between Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley drew 975,000 pay-per-view buys, translating into $50.2 million, making it the second-richest nonheavyweight bout. The fight may reach a million buys when digital cable numbers are figured in, according to HBO Vice President Mark Taffet. Those numbers won't be available for about 30 days. The pay-per-view record is approximately 2 million for the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield rematch in 1997.

Flyweight Danny Romero and lightweight Shane Mosley, two undefeated young fighters jockeying for world title shots, top the card in separate bouts tonight at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, six months after its reopening last March. The 20-year-old Romero (18-0, 16 knockouts), who says he is hoping to land a fight against one of the three major flyweight champions, defends his North American Boxing Federation title against Hugo Torres (12-2-1, six knockouts.

Pomona's "Sugar" Shane Mosley won't fight for another title when he returns to the ring Feb. 10, but he will meet a recent former champion: Luis Collazo. Mosley's scheduled challenge of International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Kermit Cintron next month was canceled this week because of conflicts with promotional contracts Cintron had signed, a spokeswoman for Golden Boy Promotions said. That cancellation led Mosley to former World Boxing Assn.

Shane Mosley defended his International Boxing Federation lightweight title for the fourth time with a fifth-round knockout of Wilfredo Ruiz on Saturday night. In the co-feature at the Apollo of Temple in Philadelphia, Olympic gold medalist David Reid also remained unbeaten with a fourth-round knockout of Simon Brown in a junior middleweight fight. Mosley (28-0) battered Ruiz (25-4) for five rounds, but the late replacement for the injured Ivan Robinson refused to go down.

A week after reinjuring his left hand, Oscar De La Hoya said Wednesday he is sparring again and expects to be at full strength for his Sept. 13 super-welterweight title fight against Shane Mosley in the MGM Grand Garden Arena at Las Vegas. "I guarantee that the hand will be 100%," De La Hoya said from his training camp at Big Bear, adding that medical tests revealed no serious damage. De La Hoya said he is throwing his left hand at "full force," after suspending sparring sessions for three days.