Wiping the slate clean

At the end of a fierce recent workout, sweat wasn’t the only thing pouring from Shane Mosley’s body.

Honesty flowed too, and when he was asked in the seclusion of a dressing room about the implications of fighting Saturday night at age 36 in the hostile territory of Madison Square Garden against a 27-year-old wearing a world champion’s belt, Mosley admitted, “This is a legacy fight.”

“If, at 36, I can go in with a young tiger at a historic place, and do what I do, they’ll mention my name again as a major force to be reckoned with,” Mosley said of his World Boxing Assn. welterweight title bout with Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto (30-0, 25 knockouts). “I want to leave this sport beating the best.”

Legacy encompasses a slide show of memories, however, and one of the most recent images attached to Pomona’s former three-division world champion is his recent acknowledgment he injected himself at least twice with the blood-doping drug Erythropoietin (EPO) while preparing for a 2003 triumph over Oscar De La Hoya.

In September, Sports Illustrated’s website, SI.com, reported that an Internal Revenue Service special agent who supervised the 2003 raids of the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, Calif., later told anti-doping conference attendees that Mosley engaged in an elaborate drug regimen before beating De La Hoya by decision that year.

Mosley answered with what he contends is a complete disclosure of his association with BALCO. He told The Times that while the BALCO link will certainly stain his career accomplishments in some people’s view, being open about the association and pledging to remain available to drug testing “anywhere, any time,” will help un-muddy his name in a way other former BALCO clients Barry Bonds and Marion Jones haven’t.

The candor has gained approval from some, including Cotto’s promoter, Bob Arum, who dropped his demand for early New York State Athletic Assn. testing of Mosley in favor of the routine pre- and post-fight samples that boxers provide.

“If I was in any way concerned for my fighter Cotto being at a disadvantage, I would have sought the test,” Arum said. “But I have no doubt Mosley has explained what he did before. I know he’s clean. There is no shadow over him.”

Yet, in discussing advantages over Mosley, Cotto’s assistant trainer and cut man Miguel Diaz on Thursday referred to Mosley’s past performance-enhancing drug use.

“It’s not only his age, but the fact he no longer has any help from BALCO,” Diaz said. “Fighting a young man like Cotto, he’ll think, ‘What am I doing in here?’ And the thing he used to use, he doesn’t use anymore.”

De La Hoya, who has lost twice to Mosley and now serves as the boxer’s promoter, said it’s time for lingering skepticism about Mosley to stop.

“There’s a few people trying to create some controversy, but Mosley has been honest about what he did, he’s told the truth,” De La Hoya said. “He’s taken a lie-detector test, told his story in front of a grand jury, he’s been tested [for steroids] since. Some people will try to do anything to distract a fighter.”

Mosley has admitted meeting with BALCO founder Victor Conte in 2003 and giving him a $1,500 personal check for the energy-boosting EPO in addition to Conte’s designer steroids, known as “the cream” and “the clear,” before his important rematch with De La Hoya.

Mosley said he mistakenly believed he was purchasing legal vitamin supplements from BALCO.

“If I was truly dirty, I would’ve given [Conte] cash,” Mosley told The Times. “That lets you know I didn’t do anything I knew was wrong.”

Mosley says he was persuaded to take the drugs by a hometown friend serving as his strength and conditioning coach, Darryl Hudson. Hudson presided over Mosley’s preparation for his second super-welterweight bout, and the former lightweight said Hudson told him using Conte’s supplements would be “icing on the cake” to help Mosley recover from extensive weight training that helped boost Mosley’s size.

“Darryl was telling me, this guy [Conte] knows his stuff, and I said, ‘OK, I’ll take this extra hocus pocus stuff,’ but I had told [Conte] to understand the parameters of what I can and can’t do.”

It was later confirmed to Mosley that BALCO was distributing undetectable steroids.

“I didn’t try to mislead anybody,” he said. “Darryl was so gung-ho on making me look spectacular and good . . . I think Darryl was fooled. And I was fooled.”

Jack Mosley, the boxer’s father and trainer, said he still isn’t certain if Hudson “lied to, or fed bad information to, Shane,” after accepting products from Conte. Hudson did not return telephone messages left for him.

Mosley fired Hudson after BALCO was raided by law enforcement and vows to be tested for drugs whenever asked.

If he could defeat Cotto, Mosley would re-enter the best pound-for-pound rankings, and have a stronger platform to fight the unbeaten fighter widely considered the best in the world, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Mosley is relishing being bigger than an opponent for the first time in years, and said he expected to overpower and be a faster puncher than the younger Cotto. In his return to the welterweight division in February, Mosley knocked down Luis Collazo en route to a unanimous decision victory.

The Cotto bout is Mosley’s most important since the 2003 De La Hoya victory.

“Beating the best and going out the best is definitely a motivating factor,” Mosley said. “I should beat a guy like Miguel Cotto. I’ll be the biggest, fastest fighter he’ll have ever fought, and it’ll be hard for him to push me. I’m fighting as young and fast and vibrant as ever, and I want to show I’m one of the best fighters of this era.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com