In keeping with the tradition of putting Marco Antonio Barrera's fights against no-name opponents on HBO PPV, the network has the Mexican warrior facing off against Australian Robbie Peden, with Shane Mosley to fight Jose Luis Cruz on the co-feature, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this Saturday night.

In fairness to Peden, 25-2 (14), he has two knockout victories over once highly-touted Nate Campbell within the past year, and is a step up from the Mzonke Fana's and washed up Kevin Kelley's of the Barrera PPV parade. Peden, nicknamed the "The Bomber", is looking to add Barrera's scalp to his resume, but Barrera, 60-4 (42), looked sensational against Fana and in his last fight with Erik Morales, and seems to be experiencing a second career wind.

Peden, 31, who was stopped by Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in 2002, is an all-action, crowd-pleasing fighter with a tough-guy persona who will almost certainly try to take the fight to to the vastly more experienced Barrera. In many ways, this fight will resemble Mosley's last bout against David Estrada, in which Estrada tried to bully and intimidate Mosley. It didn't work. With sixty fights under his belt, there is nothing Barrera hasn't seen, and he has always been able to handle high-volume punchers more easily than fast-handed fighters, as losses to Junior Jones and Manny Pacquiao can attest.

In this 130-pound title unification bout, look for Barrera and Peden to create a relatively entertaining fight, but unless Barrera gets old overnight, the 31-year-old will control the fight with his superb jab and rough up the Aussie on his way to a unanimous decision.

Prediction: Barrera by unanimous decision

In his last fight versus Estrada, "Sugar" Shane Mosley,40-4 (35), won a clear-cut, unanimous decision in which he punished Estrada to the body and looked almost like the welterweight Mosley of old. Estrada was a very difficult style for Mosley, along the lines of Carlos Maussa, and "Sugar Shane" didn't get the credit he should have for the victory. The undefeated Cruz, 32-0-2 (27), has an impressive KO percentage, but has fought no one of importance and the only impressive note on his resume is a draw with Carlos Baldomir. Though many insiders believe Mosley is done, the jury is still out on whether he can rekindle the magic he had at 147 and regain the welterweight title. Look for "Sugar" Shane to make a statement by coming out more confidently and comfortably, letting his hands go, throwing more combinations and scoring his first stoppage victory since 2001 (or seven fights).

Prediction: Mosley KO 5

After last weeks Pacquiao-Morales so-so co-feature on HBO World Championship Boxing, you would think that the Barrera-Mosley card deserves a demotion from PPV status. But like De La Hoya, Barrera only fights on pay-per-view until the end of his career, and the logic seems to be that if you throw in a name like the highly popular Mosley, a pay-per-view rating is validated.

But names like Barrera and Morales should only warrant pay-per-view status ... when they fight eachother.