When was the last time you had a truly big fight where one of the participants hadn't won a fight in over two calendar years and is on a three-fight non-winning skid? That's exactly what you have when Oscar De La Hoya gets his chance at redemption against Shane Mosley this upcoming Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Forget about De La Hoya's WBC and WBA jr. middleweight crowns, what's really on the line is much bigger than that. If 'Sugar' Shane should make it two-for-two against 'the Golden Boy,' Mosley not only erases the memories of his two losses to Vernon Forrest, but reclaims his spot among the sport's elite. It would be as if he went from June 17, 2000 (when he first defeated De La Hoya) and fast-forwarded to September 13, 2003 and everything in between would be forgotten. And that goes for both fighters.

"Yeah, it's interesting," says Larry Merchant of HBO Sports, who's called many of their fights ringside, including their first encounter at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. "Shane Mosley was considered a tremendous fighter before anyone out there got to know him. So sometimes things work out cock-eyed. He didn't get his opportunities Œtill rather late or late compared to the fighters that come out roaring out of the Olympics. He lost twice to Vernon Forrest but after all, he did beat Oscar De La Hoya in a very exciting and very dramatic fight, in a big fight, and this one might be even bigger."

The bottom line is this: if he should down De La Hoya for the second time, he could be ending Oscar's career inside the ring.

"You never want to say never, it might be how he loses rather than whether he loses," said Merchant of that possibility. "I don't know if he can come back from a bad beating. He's never really had a bad beating in the ring. That might get him to think more about his future as a promoter and as a husband and a father. These things have strange patterns. He might beat Mosley in another great fight and want to have a third fight with him and then call it a day.

"I'm excited about the rematch, all of boxing is excited about the rematch and I'm not smart enough to know what's going to happen after it."

There's no doubting that after his stirring win over Fernando Vargas last year that De La Hoya's star is shining as bright as ever. The MGM Grand is a complete sell out and the gate has done over $11 million. Pay-per-view sales are expected to be brisk, perhaps even challenging the numbers of his bout with Vargas that did nearly a million buys. A win makes him only bigger.

"I think a De La Hoya victory would be a significant event in the arc of his career. Whether he's bigger than ever is hard to say because he was pretty big, but he would be as big as ever and still the major attraction in boxing as a 154-pound fighter," Merchant says.

And if he does even up the score with Mosley, he then has victories on his ledger against the likes of Rafael Ruelas, Genaro Hernandez, John-John Molina, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whitaker, Ike Quartey and Fernando Vargas. From 130 to 154 pounds, that's a pretty good body of work any way you look at it. Although it looks like he'll never get a chance to avenge his controversial loss to Felix Trinidad in 1999, where he squandered his lead worse than Greg Norman at the '96 Masters.

"It certainly has that appearance that he's retired," Merchant said of Trinidad. "But I would like to wait until after his contract with Don King expires before making a definitive comment and maybe wait as long as six months."

But regardless of what Tito decided to do with his future, the future, as always, would hold great promise for De La Hoya should he win on Saturday night. There's always a rematch with Vargas or a possible move up to middleweight for a date with undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins. But let's face it, whenever he fights, it's a big fight. He's put the 'golden' in 'Golden Boy.'

But that's if he's able to down Mosley, and that's a humongous 'if', if you ask me. Yes, Mosley is at his lowest ebb since he began his professional career. Yes, some of the luster is off his shine, and there might be some apprehension to the way he fights now, and no, he may not be the same fighter that he was a few years ago. But the bottom line is that Mosley's athletic ability, hand speed and quickness will always give De La Hoya fits.

Perhaps De La Hoya is a different fighter under the tutelage of Floyd Mayweather Sr. but under his teachings he has never faced a fighter as fast or as smooth as Mosley. Guys like Arturo Gatti, Javier Castillejo and Vargas are plodders when compared to the greyhound that Mosley can be, even at 154 pounds. And remember it was Mosley who made adjustments in the second half of their first fight to pull away, so it's up to Oscar to come up with some answers early on the second time around.

And Mosley sees essentially the same fighter.

"I think he's trying to implement some head movement and a right hand,˛ Mosley said. łThat's all I see, I don't see anything different."

He also comes in with a fierce determination. While De La Hoya talks of redeeming himself and gaining revenge, Mosley comes in with a resolve that hasn't been seen before based on what he felt was disrespect shown to him at the negotiating table.

"I think the reason they faced me at this particular time is because they have more money involved and he's getting the bigger purse of it," he reasons. "If I had never lost and me and De La Hoya were to fight a rematch it would be even across the board and De La Hoya would be getting much less than he's getting now. So actually De La Hoya's winning because he's getting $20 million and that's winning regardless if he loses. He's won already, so that's my thing. He won outside the ring, I've got to win inside the ring."

But the bottom line is that even with another win over De La Hoya, he'll never be the box-office attraction that his Southern California counterpart has become. But he would at least restore his lost luster.

"If Mosley wins I do think it would help to restore him," stated Merchant, of that possibility, "maybe not the mystique that was there before the Forrest fights when he was looked upon by elite trainers in the business, not by us ringsiders, as the second coming of anyone who was ever there. So that could help restore him and then again, it's what happens in the rest of his career."

Yup, he could get lost in another Forrest and De La Hoya could beat Vargas again and we'd be right back to where we were. It's repeat or redemption in more ways than one.

MGM GRAND

With over 16,000 tickets being sold, with a gate of over $11 million, there's no doubt that Bob Arum made the right decision in bringing this fight to Las Vegas. With numbers like that, it doesn't matter what happens on Saturday night; this is, for all intents and purposes, a 'mega-fight'.

What I'm looking forward to most though is the supposedly 'new and improved' MGM Grand media center. New and improved, huh? I'll be the judge of that.