Mosley to fight at Staples Center

The Jan. 24 world welterweight title fight between champion Antonio Margarito and Pomona’s “Sugar” Shane Mosley has been moved from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to Staples Center, fight officials said Thursday.

The shift comes just days after Mosley’s statements to the grand jury that investigated the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative were released. In them, the four-time world champion acknowledged that he knew that he was taking the oxygen-boosting drug EPO and was told to deceptively refer to the designer steroid THG as “flaxseed oil.”

Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Keith Kizer said Thursday that the commission was likely to confront Mosley about the revelations because he had previously told Nevada officials that he didn’t believe he had taken anything that was on the banned list of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Kizer was surprised to learn that promoters had moved the fight, but he added that he didn’t believe the Mosley camp was trying to avoid possible discipline in Nevada.

“We knew Staples was available, and we made a deal figuring we might as well take the fight to where these fighters’ fans are,” Margarito’s promoter, Bob Arum, said.

-- Lance Pugmire