when a champion is a champion

Funny thing about the fight crowd. It doesn't believe patience is a virtue. If you're a champion, it's important you act like one. If you're considered a great fighter, you better keep proving your greatness.

It's that way with Sugar Shane Mosley. Since his win over Oscar De La Hoya last summer, he's fought three guys who were just happy they could finally pay the rent and get cable.

Mosley's last legalized beating was against Adrian Stone, who looked like he'd been hit by a truck when he went down late in the third round last week. Manslaughter charges were pending, but Stone finally sat up and HBO breathed a sigh of relief.

It was one of those ugly knock downs where your wife winces and looks over at you like you're crazy to like this game. It wasn't a fight as much as it was a televised mugging.

The other two sacrificial lambs thrown to Mosley since his last real fist fight were Antonio Diaz and Shannan Taylor, who - like Stone - could have been soap opera stars for all I knew.

With all due respect to Taylor, Diaz and Stone, they didn't make for good drama. It was like watching a tiger play with its food.

As for Mosley, you don't mind a guy taking a few days off work after making a big score, after beating a guy like De La Hoya. But a year later, when he still hasn't punched his time card, you got to wonder if he still wants his job. Stay away a year and people are going to start talking and the boss is going to start asking tough questions.

The catchy slogan of the fight crowd has always been, ``what have you done for me lately?'' In the case of Mosley, the answer is nothing.

The vacation is over, Shane. It's been a year since De La Hoya made you famous, gave you legitimacy. Time to prove your greatness again.

So now Mosley, hearing the grumbling, supposedly wants a rematch with De La Hoya, which, in one way, is like da Vinci wanting to touch up the Mona Lisa, add some color and maybe a frown. Some things are best left alone. De La Hoya may be one of them.

On the other hand, De La Hoya might be the best fight out there for both Mosley and the rest of us. De La Hoya is still one of the best fighters in the land and if Mosley can beat him again, we will have to consider him near the top of the pound-for-pound list. If De La Hoya wins, there's always that third fight. And when history looks back on a fighter, he's measured by the men he fought. Ali would not be so great without Frazier.

If the De La Hoya fight can't be made, what about Vernon Forrest? They keep reminding us that Forrest beat Mosly as an amateur, but that doesn't mean anything. There's probably some car salesmen out there who struck out Cal Ripken in Little League, but that doesn't mean he should be pitching in Fenway.

Still, A Forrest-Mosley fight would have been better than what we've seen.

How good is Mosley? It was easier to come up with an educated answer a year ago when he was still fighting the best. You don't work your way up the pound-for-pound list by stopping the Adrian Stones of the world. Want to know how to become the best? Look at the resume of Felix Trinidad. The only guy he's ducking is from the IRS.

After watching Mosley dismantle Stone last week, George Foreman made the bold prediction that Mosley could beat Trinidad. But you have to forgive George. He forgot who it was that Mosley just beat.

That's the whole point.