LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya did everything but claim that the judges who scored his rematch with Shane Mosley had been perched on a grassy knoll.

With boxing, there always are conspiracy theories. But this time, De La Hoya insists, he will get to the bottom of the plot he believes exists against him. Money is no object in the search for truth, and the “Golden Boy” has deep pockets.

“Shane is a great fighter, he’s a great person,” De La Hoya said after Mosley took his WBA and WBC super welterweight titles by identical scores of 115-113 from judges Duane Ford, Stanley Christodoulou and Anek Hongtongkam in Saturday’s pay-per-view superfight at the MGM Grand. “I love the guy. We grew up together (in southern California). My respect (for him) will always be there.

“But (today), I will seek a full investigation on what happened tonight. I just feel in my heart that decision should have gone to me. I’m happy I have the financial resources to put the best lawyers on this.

“Boxing does not need this. Boxing needs good decisions to stay alive. Even when I fought (Felix) Trinidad, I felt that something was wrong. I didn’t do anything about it, although the world was telling me I won that fight. Now, I think I’ve gotten a little tired of this. We’ve seen a lot of bad decisions over the years. I think it’s time to put a stop to all that, for the sake of boxing.”

As proof of what he considered the injustice that had been perpetrated, De La Hoya read from a sheet of paper that listed the punch statistics compiled by CompuBox. It indicated De La Hoya, the 2-1 favorite, had landed 221 of 616 punches (36 percent) to just 127 of 496 (26 percent) for Mosley. The disparity in jabs was particularly notable, De La Hoya connecting with 106 of 296 (36 percent) to 33 of 268 (12 percent) for Mosley.

But computerized punch stats, although a useful tool in analyzing a fight, are as inadmissible in the court of public opinion as lie-detector tests are in a court of law. They are, at best, circumstantial evidence. The quantity of something is not always consistent with its quality.

To hear the HBO PPV telecasters tell it (the replay on regular HBO will be this Saturday) – and it should be noted that HBO has a huge financial interest in De La Hoya – Oscar was rooked, but other eyes saw things differently. Nigel Collins, editor of The Ring magazine, scored the bout 117-113 for Mosley, and the Daily News card had Mosley emerging victorious by 117-112.

“I felt a lot stronger than him,” said Mosley (39-2, 35 KOs), who reprised his June 17, 2000, split decision over De La Hoya (36-3, 29 KOs). “My punches did more damage than his did.”

As visual proof of that assertion, Mosley might have offered De La Hoya’s swollen face as Exhibit A. De La Hoya arrived for the postfight press conference with a puffy, purplish right cheek and a huge bandage covering a cut alongside his right eye, although the cut – the first of his previously unbloodied career – was the result of an inadvertent clash of heads in the fourth round. Ring physician Margaret Goodman examined the cut, and correctly ruled that the flow of blood was not getting into De La Hoya’s eye and thus did not hinder his vision.

To hear some tell it, however, this was a brazen stickup – not of some convenience store, but of Fort Knox, given De La Hoya’s 24-carat status as boxing’s biggest draw.

De La Hoya’s theatrically incensed promoter, Bob Arum, reacted to the decision by calling boxing a “sewer sport,” and insinuating that, like Richard Nixon following his losing bid for the California governor’s office, you won’t have him to kick around anymore.

“You can call me a sore loser, but you ain’t gonna see my (butt) anymore,” Arum huffed. “This is such an outrage that I’m never, ever going to be a party to this again.”

But was it really such a heist of unprecedented proportions that Arum will stick to his guns, lock up his Las Vegas offices and go home? Nixon returned to public life, and if the oddsmakers were laying odds on Arum doing the same, the proposition would be so much a gimme it would be off the board. Look for the alleged controversy to serve as a backdrop when Arum and Mosley’s promoter, Gary Shaw, get together soon to begin negotiating Mosley-De La Hoya III.

Bad decisions are endemic in boxing, but this seems an odd test case upon which to launch a probe into the inexact science of scoring fights. Hey, Oscar-Shane II came 3 days after the 10th anniversary of the Pernell Whitaker-Julio Cesar Chavez “draw” in San Antonio, in which Whitaker was victimized to a far greater extent than De La Hoya, even in full Oliver Stone mode, could ever imagine. If the truth is out there to be found, the “X-Files” crew should have been all over that one.

Punch stats or no punch stats, it was Mosley who had De La Hoya backing up for most of the fight and reducing De La Hoya’s jab, so effective in the first two rounds, to a non-factor later on.

“I think my body shots slowed down his jabs,” Mosley said.

“He was afraid to throw his jab because he knew I was coming right back with body shots.”

You want the truth? It says here the truth is that the rematch was not as exciting as the original, that Mosley, 32, and De La Hoya, 30, both have lost something off their fastballs, although they’re still plenty good. The truth is that, as is the case with many Super Bowls, the most eagerly anticipated megafights seldom fulfill the hype.

It also is the truth that boxing keeps shooting itself in the foot with real or manufactured brouhahas, throwing its very legitimacy into continual question, until it now limps along on bloodied stumps.