So, Mark Johnson could not beat Rafael Marquez. So what?

"Too Sharp" lost a close-as-can-be split decision to Marquez in late 2001, and was knocked out in their rematch in early 2002. But who at 118 would not lose to Johnson's conqueror? Tim Austin, the best bantamweight in the world for nearly half a decade, couldn't even go the distance with Marquez. Rafael Marquez is really very good.

"Too Sharp" told me that Marquez hit him so hard, "I swear, I smelled barbecue. I thought I was at a cook-out." Rafael is a big, young, sharp, power-punching bantamweight, and Johnson is an old, blown-up flyweight. The fact that Johnson managed to very nearly beat Marquez in their first fight is a testament to the D.C. native's talent and skill.

Still, after his back-to-back losses to the new bantamweight kingpin, many felt that at 32, Mark Johnson was over-the-hill.

The undefeated 24-year-old Fernando Montiel was considered by many, until a couple of weeks ago, the best 115-pounder in the world. Then he fought a guy who has never lost a fight at 115, and now Montiel is undefeated no longer. On the 16th of August, "Too Sharp" beat Montiel on points over a spirited 12 rounds. An over-the-hill Mark Johnson is apparently still pretty good.

Just because Johnson can't beat Rafael Marquez at 118 doesn't mean he isn't still better than almost anyone else. As he showed in the middle of last month, Johnson might be the best 115-pounder on earth.

And just because Shane Mosley couldn't beat Vernon Forrest, doesn't mean that Mosley is not still better than almost anyone else. As he will have a chance to show against Oscar De La Hoya in the middle of this month, Mosley, like Johnson, might still be among boxing's elite.

No, "Sugar Shane" did not look so great in his 154-pound debut against Raul Marquez last February. But Marquez is a world-class fighter, and Shane was winning the fight at the moment it was stopped (as a result of a Marquez cut caused by an unintentional clash of heads). Raul was not getting blown out in the same way Mosley's pre-Forrest opponents like Adrian Stone and Antonio Diaz had been, but Shane should be cut some slack. Had his knockout wins against Diaz or Shannon Taylor been stopped after three rounds as a result of cuts, would Shane have looked as dominant as he did?

Mosley was never the kind of fighter to come out and overwhelm an opponent with a first round blitzkrieg. He was always more of a wear-you-down fighter -- there was always more jack than sledge in the hammers he threw. Mosley never got the chance against Marquez to rat-a-tat his way to the kind of knockout win we had grown accustomed to before he lost back-to-back fights to Forrest in his only appearances of 2002.

Roy Jones has always been fronted on. Everyone has always known how much better he has always been than anyone close to his own weight. There are, however, those who have always been reluctant to give Roy the credit he deserves because Roy has always been reluctant to engage opponents in action fights, electing instead to outbox them from a safe distance.

Mosley has never been fronted on -- everyone loves his fast-paced, flashy style because he combines it with a knock-em-out mentality. No, people are not fronting on Shane. They're sleeping on him.

Sure, he lost those two fights to Forrest. No, he did not decisively beat Marquez. Yes, he did look slower, and seemed to hit with less pop, at 154 than he did at 147. Okay, it will not be the same Mosley who Oscar lost to in their classic confrontation three years ago. But it will not be the same De La Hoya either.

While Oscar has had a great deal of success at junior middle, and while he has taken quite well to the Floyd Mayweather Sr. school of boxing style, his hand and foot speed seem, like Shane's, to have diminished with age. The Mayweather technique of picking off punches and rolling-and-countering has proven effective for Oscar, but he had his greatest success against Shane in their first fight when he was on his toes and boxing from a distance. Against a body puncher of Mosley's caliber, Mayweather's philosophy of blocking and slipping rather than sticking and moving could backfire.

Since his loss to Mosley, De La Hoya has reestablished himself as a top pound-for-pound fighter -- right up there with anyone not named Roy Jones. Mosley has not won a fight in two years. Yet their first fight was a classic, easily one of the best of this young decade, and it says here that their rematch will bring us more of the same. Especially if Oscar sleeps on Shane.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights" and the host of the show "Around The Horn."