NEW YORK-- Two years ago Shane Mosley was watching when Ricardo Torres hurt Miguel Cotto in the first round and dropped him in the second. He was watching last June when Zab Judah rocked Cotto in his tracks with a first-round counter-left, only to be taken out of the fight almost immediately by a left to the scrotum.

You get the feeling Sugar Shane won’t let Cotto off the hook as easily.

“Those guys were too small,” said the four-time world champion. “Torres took that fight on two weeks notice. He wasn’t in the best of shape, and by the third round he was gasping for air. Judah wasn’t in the best of shape, either. And I’ve also noticed that Cotto can be a bit slow starting out. He’s there to be hit early.”

Cotto was also in a world of trouble in his 2005 fight with Chop-Chop Corley, who nearly knocked him down with a succession of fight hooks in the third round, but Mosley is something the aforementioned trip of Cotto opponents was not: a finisher.

As he discussed his upcoming Nov. 10 challenge to the WBA welterweight champion, Mosley was seated at a table in the Madison Square Garden Theatre. The last time he was in the same venue, five years ago, things didn’t go so well for him: That would have been the first of his back-to-back losses to his personal nemesis, Vernon Forrest.

Cassius Green, the California cut-man who has been a constant fixture in Mosley’s corner (Green was there even when Shane’s father/trainer Jack was not) made an interesting point: “There ain’t a man less than six feet tall ever beat the Sugar Man.”

Actually, Winky Wright is more like 5-11, but the point is nonetheless well taken. Cotto is 5-7, and Mosley has never lost to a man his own size.

Of course, Cassius Green dispenses hot air for a living. He also claimed that 19 Mosley opponents had, like Cotto, been undefeated when he fought them. The actual number is seven – and two of those were Forrest, who beat him – but the essential point is valid: In a professional career spanning 14 years Mosley has been in this position before.

In fact, a look at his record would suggest that Cotto may have more in common with the likes of Eduardo Morales, Shannan Taylor, and Jose Luis Cruz than he does Vernon Forrest.

Yes, Mosley has watched tapes of Cotto’s punishing body attack, and he expects the Puerto Rican champion to try to dish out more of the same to him.

“I’ve fought many guys who’ve tried to go to the body (Hello, Oscar. Yo, Vargas!) because they assume I’m just a boxer,” he said. “Their mistake.”

Mosley’s appearance in New York Thursday came on the eve of his 36th birthday. For the occasion Cotto and his handlers had prepared a large birthday cake, decorated with an image of Mosley on the canvas, Cotto perched above him. Sugar Shane accepted the gibe with good humor.

Another interesting point: Mosley, who had fought eight straight times at junior middleweight after the second Forrest fight, also noted that this will be his first fight armed with eight-ounce gloves since 2002.

“By moving up to 154 meant I had to start fighting with 10-ounce gloves,” said Mosley. “When I came back down to 147 for my last fight (against Luis Colazzo) I was thinking ‘Oh, boy, I get to use 8-ounce gloves again,’ but it turned out in Nevada they use 10-ounce gloves for welterweights. I’m really looking forward to putting on those 8-ounce gloves again.”

Mosley, it might be noted, is not only a participant, but a promoter of sorts in the Nov. 10 “Fast & Furious” bill at the Garden, since he is an “equity partner” in Golden Boy Promotions. (The fast track to becoming Oscar’s partner is to beat him in the ring; GBP vice president Bernard Hopkins was also on hand at for the New York festivities.)

Unlike his business associates De La Hoya and B-Hop, there was no talk of retirement coming from the challenger’s corner. He may be 36 in human years, but like Old Man River, win, lose, or draw, Sugar Shane Mosley intends to keep rolling along.

“We’re not looking past Cotto,” said Jack Mosley. “But we do want to fight Floyd also.”

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