By Mark Vester
The agreed upon between welterweights Shane Mosley and Joshua Clottey is facing resistance from HBO. Last week Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank reached an agreement to stage the fight on December 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The whole situation is very bizare.
The date of December 26 was reserved by HBO for Mosley's return. Mosley was originally scheduled to return on December 5. HBO needed the Dec. 5 date to place the postponed middleweight bout between Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams. They convinced Mosley and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer to allow Pavlik-Williams to get the date. The network promised to accommodate Mosley with the date of December 26 if they gave up December 5.
After the promoters reached a deal for the fight, and made a deal with the venue, HBO came back and tried to convince Golden Boy to move the fight to a date in January. All of a sudden the network doesn't want to handle an event too close to Christmas. Did HBO even consider this issue when they gave the date to Golden Boy or was it all a swerve to secure the December 5 date for Pavlik-Williams?
BoxingScene.com heard a few rumors that HBO was trying to push Mosley's return to January 30, a date previously mentioned as a possible return date for Bernard Hopkins. Mosley is not happy about the situation. He last fought on January 24. Mosley wants to return before the end of the year and doesn't want to postpone his return until 2010.
If a deal is not worked out with HBO and the fight crumbles, there is a chance that Clottey will see action on the undercard to Pavlik-Williams on 12/5. If that were to happen, Mosley could see action in January against WBC champion Andre Berto. Right now Schaefer is trying to work out a deal to save the Mosley-Clottey fight.
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