By Robert Morales & Rick Reeno

The executives at HBO have created a real mess for themselves - and unfortunately in the process they created a mess for some of the fighters involved in the headline. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is steaming, and rightfully so, over HBO’s insistence for Mosley to move his televised date from December 26 to January 30.

Schaefer, and Mosley, had already been kind enough to move their date from December 5 to December 26. Unexpectedly, HBO found itself in a bind with rescheduling the middleweight bout between Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams. In other words, HBO needed a date and they needed it quick. Mosley accommodated the network by agreeing to move his return to December 26. As a result, HBO was able to place Pavlik-Williams on the December 5 date.

Last week, Schaefer makes a deal with Top Rank to match Mosley against Joshua Clottey. He secures the Staples Center in Los Angeles to host the event. Then, unexpectedly, HBO backs away from their agreement to provide the date of December 26. When the date was first announced, everyone was surprised because traditionally the network never carries an event that close to Christmas. But, it was HBO that promised that date. Schaefer and Mosley lived up to their end of the agreement by moving from December 5 to December 26. Shouldn’t HBO live up their end of the deal?

Mosley is obviously upset with the situation. Inactive since the win over Antonio Margarito on January 24, the last thing he wants to do is go a year without fighting.

"I'm frankly becoming pissed off at the way Shane Mosley has been treated and I’m not going to tolerate it any longer. People shouldn’t mistake my kindness for weakness. If they do, they'll get a wake up call,” Schaefer would tell BoxingScene.com. 

That’s not all folks. Bernard Hopkins is also upset. HBO had previously promised the date of January 30 to Hopkins. The network wants him to move to a new date in February. That doesn’t sit well with Hopkins. HBO promised to create a special event on January 30 that centered around his 45th birthday.

If Mosley were to move to January 30, HBO would like him to fight either Clottey or WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. But then another issue opens up - securing an opponent. 

Mosley moving to January 30 could possibly send Clottey to a co-feature position on Pavlik-Williams. Berto, like Mosley, doesn’t want to wait until 2010 to fight again. He wants to return before the end of the year, preferably in a unification bout with IBF champion Isaac Hlatshwayo. By waiting until January to fight, Berto would likely get stripped of his title.

DiBella told BoxingScene that a Mosley-Berto fight on January 30 is very unlikely due to several issues at hand. If Berto were able to take a tuneup to shake off some rust and better prepare himself, then the Mosley fight is possible. HBO will not allow a tuneup to prevent the possibility of injury and/or a loss.

“He would get stripped in order to do that [to fight Mosley in January]. He would walk into that fight with eight months of inactively. We are going to explore all of our options and do what‘s best for Andre Berto. I understand Richard Schaefer’s frustration but I can’t put a 26-year-old young champion’s career on hold to wait on the dance card of a 40-year-old and 45-year-old guy to fill up,” DiBella said.

For all of the switched dates to become a reality - both Mosley and Hopkins would have to agree - or Schaefer won’t budge. Currently Schaefer is neck deep in the promotion of next Saturday’s Mayweather-Marquez pay-per-view. At the same time, he is trying to secure the best possible scenarios for his fighters, Mosley and Hopkins. Even a workhorse like Schaefer has to admit - it’s almost too much to deal with.

"The next time you see me, you’re going to see a few more gray hairs,” Schaefer said.