LAS VEGAS - Gotcha! There is nothing “exclusive” about Sugar Shane Mosley hoping to be “just like Bernard (Hopkins)” and continue boxing “past the four-and-oh,” and you didn't need me to tell you it was simply bad taste to hint that he was rolling joints for anyone, in particularly himself and certainly not for Iron Mike.

But the boss is trying to sell subscriptions so he can afford my priceless prose and it behooves me to acquiesce with an attempt at sensationalism. Besides, in the words of that great boxing maven, Billy Crystal, Mosley at age 35 looks “simply marvelous” and fully worthy of the large odds favoring him Saturday over Luis Collazo, a quality fighter ten years his junior.

He won't talk trash. Mosley is that rarity, someone who loves the game and treats it with respect. In 1997, before he beat Philip Holiday for his first world title, when he was his opponent's age now, he said he enjoyed boxing so much he hoped he could still be competing at 35. Now he looks at Hopkins, one of his partners in Oscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, and changes his game plan to 42. Why not?

He said he hasn't felt this good in years and while giving tribute to the former welterweight title-holder who had Ricky Hatton holding on for dear undefeated record last year, Mosley could be entering a rare stage for a prize fighter. Maybe even more so than Hopkins, he is becoming an Old Master. In the talented Collazo, he has the perfect canvas to paint another masterpiece, like his startling upset of de la Hoya in 2000. I suspect we're going to see a portrait of the artist as an older young man.

He's been around forever, mostly at or near the top of boxing's A-list. There are many cynics in the media section, with better seats than mine, who count to 35 on their neighbors' fingers and toes and declare him a piece of cheese that has overstayed its freshness. His two stoppages of Fernando Vargas at 154 pounds last year, the second more dazzling than the first, are waved off by the doubters who point to the sad state of the opposition.

There would be little debate that Shane has come back if he can return to welterweight and beat one of the major players in the division. A victory on the HBO card here would position Mosley for a major showdown later with the true welterweight king, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

This would be especially rewarding if tabloid headlines in the spring read “Cinco de Mayweather” and Mosley's business partner, Oscar de la Hoya needs avenging. His confidence level is higher than I've seen it since the two losses in 2002 to Vernon Forrest reminded him that he was a mere mortal.

The way he felt, he said, Collazo wouldn't be the only guy he could beat Saturday night - that he could score over anyone, and “way over Mayweather.”

“I know I'm in great shape,” he said.

He said his old lightweight speed was back, that he knows now he was too occupied with lifting weights, getting stronger as he moved up to junior middle, that he was standing, like most aged fighters, flat-footed.

At Thursday's final press conference, the fit-looking Mosley said he weighed 148 pounds and for the one pound he needed to lose by Friday afternoon's weighin for what is being billed as an “interim” welterweight title bout, he said he would “sleep it off.”

He is not sleeping on Collazo, who sat stoically, plugged into his ear phones, during most of the Mandalay Bay press conference. Mosley praised his rival as a “future” champion, even a “future superstar the way he stays off the line, the angles from which he delivers his punches, the way he moves.

“He can give anyone problems, including me.”

Collazo is the first southpaw Mosley has faced since losing two in a row to Winky Wright in 2004. Collazo is much more mobile than Wright. Perhaps more importantly, the kid from Brooklyn - the other end of Union Avenue in Williamsburg from where I worked more than 50 years ago - believes he has quicker hands than the former lightweight champion.

If he does, Collazo is a temptation at plus $3.20 (more than 3-1) at the sportsbook and Mosley, at minus $3.80, may not be worth the risk, though we have it on his best advice that betting on him is the way to riches.

He says the “smart money” is on him, and it must be there are plenty of people who make their livings by gambling, have ignored all the sage advice given by the media about Collazo being a “live” underdog.

Collazo, born of Puerto Rican descent in Brooklyn, now lives on one of my old haunts, Union Avenue in the Williamsburg section. That's where, long before even Ol' Man Mosley was born, I was probably the fastest puncher in the city of New York. Of course, that had nothing to do with boxing and everything to do with how quickly one could “punch” jelly donuts, that is, fill them with jam.

I digress. Punching jelly donuts at Vita Fresh, my father's wholesale donut shop, was the athletic highlight of my life. I was so-so icing French crullers. But back to Louie. His father, a fan who works for the New York Housing Authority, exposed him to the game before puberty. At 16, he was a New York Daily News (one of my many old outfits) Golden Gloves champion. At 15, he began collecting tattoos. He's got more ink on his body than I have produced.

I must mention Brooklyn again. In the HBO semifinal, Vicious Vivian Harris is better than a 5-2 favorite to defeat Juan Lazcano in a 140-pound eliminator to set up an official challenger for England's Junior Witter.

The odds seem a bit high. Tell you why. Harris, like his trainer, Lennox Blackmoore, was born in Guyana and established residence in Brooklyn. I spent many years trying to escape Brooklyn. I went to Manhattan, Paris and now Vegas. Harris has just moved to New Jersey.

You don't leave Brooklyn for Joisey.

VOLUNTARY DEFENSE: I have decided to become boxing's Decider. But unlike the other character who has set himself up as the Great Arbiter, I will admit mistakes. Mea culpa, mea culpa. I have written that Jose Sulaiman and his WBCorruptors should be boiled in the grease with which they stain boxing, this time for charging Samuel Peter sanction fees for two victories over James Toney that established himself as the mandatory challenger for the bandidos' heavyweight champion, Oleg Maskaev. I became livid when the WBCheats appeared to let Vitali Klitschko, their “champion emeritus” - whatever the hell that is - come out of retirement and cut the line. “Boo,” said all right-thinking bloggers.

Alas, we were wrong. There can be little doubt that Peter is being screwed by the WBCrooks. But the remedy, I have decided, should not be charged to the innocent Maskaev. He won his plastic belt by upsetting Hasim Rahman last August as the mandatory challenger.

This means that he has until this August to make a mandatory defense and of course it should be Peter. Aha, but Maskaev has the right to take on the elder Klitschko, for more money, as a “voluntary” defense. In no way, should Vitali be allowed to cut in as a champion emeritus, a title with which he was ordained when he retired because of injuries. He beat Corrie Sanders for a vacant title, made one defense against Danny Williams, then held the belt hostage for two years to his injuries. I don't see how that c.v. lifts him to a special level.

But as a “voluntary” defense, Maskaev should be allowed to make some money. The WBChurls, according to the Decider, should thereupon not only give Peter back his sanction fees for the Toney fights, but a substantial fine and then make sure the Maskaev-Vitali winner fights him next. If not, then Peter should fight for the vacant title. For the sake of boredom, he can not face Toney for a third time. For the sake of clarity, he can not face Sinan Samil Sam.

PENTHOUSE: I have also decided that five weeks into 2007 that Chad Dawson has replaced Peter as the early leader in the clubhouse for fighter of the year. It looks like the light-heavyweight division has a new standard-bearer. Also, Floyd Mayweather Sr. has moved ahead of Stacey McKinley, who aided Pops Anderson for the preparation of Samuel Peter for the Toney rematch.

OUTHOUSE: After all these months of professing that it will buy fights, not fighters, Showtime has gone all the way, buying into Gary Shaw's mixed martial arts. In effect, Showtime is underwriting one of its boxing promoters. And talk about conflicts of interest, the network's debut in MMA Saturday night will go up against the HBO boxing double-header in the East. What's more, Shaw's MMA will be on opposite one of his fighters, Vivian Harris on HBO….Maybe I missed it,  but though the Showtime card last weekend was cut by Jesus Chavez's latest example of bad luck, I didn't hear any mention of a title fight on the untelevised undercard where Cory Spinks defeated Rodney Jones. Maybe Showtime was expecting Jim Lampley or Larry Merchant to announce the result on HBO.

ANOTHER PENTHOUSE: Dennis Rappaport, my old sparring partner, for buying a whole table for $2,000 for the Feb. 15 fund-raiser for my ailing guru, Johnny Bos. Rappaport will bring with him Oleg Maskaev to the roast for the Bos-man at Hurley's Steak House in mid-Manhattan. Bos, who celebrates his 55th birthday on Valentine's Day, has been suffering from congestive heart failure and needs big-time help with his medical bills now that the State of New York seems to be doing its dirtiest so he can not make a living. Anyone wishing to attend, should send $250 admission checks to Mike Marley at 250 West 100th Street, Suite 1102, New York, NY 10025. You can also e-mail Marley at micmarley@aol.com. The drinks start flowing at 7 P.M. and the price of admission is worth it just to meet The Mouse, Bruce Strauss, whose claim to fame is having been knocked out on every continent this side of Antartica. Said Bos: “That makes up for not being able to get Bennie Leonard.” If you can't attend, you can still send contributions to the Bos.

TRAIN HAS LEFT: Okay, Floyd Mayweather Sr. went too far with his  $2 million demand to train Oscar de la Hoya to whup Floyd Jr. Maybe Oscar interpreted that as Senior's way of saying he really didn't want the assignment. I'm just tired of Oscar saying one thing yesterday and another thing today. I guess he really did his apprenticeship under Bob Arum. It wasn't that long ago he was saying he just couldn't fight without Floyd Senior in the corner. Now he comes along and gives Freddie Roach more money than he offered his irreplaceable cornerman. I'm also a bit taken aback when Oscar says this is the most important fight of his career. Hey, he can roll around on the canvas and refuse to get up and still go down as a first-ballot hall of famer. What's more, I somehow think his primetime dates with Pernell Whitaker, Fellix Trinidad and Sugar Shane Mosley will always overshadow whatever he does at age 33.

Roach, of course, by bailing on his large stable of fighters to handle Oscar's most important fight, risks losing some real talent. While Freddie's away, you can bet Bob Arum will be working on Manny Pacquiao to dump Roach.

HINT? Carl King, representing his father's promotional company here - Don King has Collazo - dropped an intriguing line about maybe soon people won't be able to call him a “manager” anymore (now, there's a straight line). Could it be he is going to be doing more promotional work with his 75-year-old father starting to clip coupons? I've always suspected that Debbie King, the Donald's daughter and a key player on the inside of the organization, will wind up replacing dear old dad one day.

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