Today - Wednesday August 20, 2008 - will represent to most just another mid-week happy hump day. For the boxing world, it\'s Day 109 in the search of the perfect Golden ending.

The journey began with HBO investing heavily in Oscar de la Hoya\'s May 3 infomercial in their hopes (and nobody else\'s) of immediately thereafter securing the planned September 20 rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Those plans were obviously thwarted the moment Mayweather called it a career. Regardless of the real reason why, it\'s abundantly clear that whatever was on the table isn\'t enough to change his mind.

No worries, they thought. It\'s not like there\'s any shortage of fighters wanting a crack at de la Hoya, especially this deep into his career.

Chief among the list has been Manny Pacquiao in a potential matchup that started out as a \"what if\" scenario played out in the mind of longtime HBO color commentator Larry Merchant, but has since taken on a life of its own in dominating headlines on a daily basis.

All that changes is the original blueprint – three fights in his last year as a professional fighter now changes to two. Release the September date and instead invest heavily into the December 6 curtain call.

Only both dates now remain without a formidable fight inked as of press time.

September 20 will most likely remain black, though there are worse problems to have than a single vacant weekend in an otherwise loaded month of boxing.

Chances are that December 6 features boxing one way or another. The date is reserved for de la Hoya, but Golden Boy Promotions has pulled the bait and switch before (Marco Antonio Barrera received consecutive September PPV headliners in 2005-\'06 due to this process).

But perhaps a more troubling situation is – what\'s left to fill up the show?

Golden Boy already has five other dates with HBO and its PPV arm between now and November 22, including every scheduled HBO boxing telecast in September. The co-feature for the September 27 show has already been outsourced, with Andre Berto (promoted by Lou DiBella and, perhaps more germane to the scenario, advised by Al Haymon) taking on Steve Forbes (promoted by Tournament of Contenders).

Maybe it was just the network forcing the fight on the show, or perhaps it\'s indicative of how thin Golden Boy is spreading their offense over the final four months of the year.

Why this becomes a concern for December 6 is for several reasons. For starters, what if de la Hoya is forced to settle on anything less than an absolute bankable name for his grand finale? It\'s a short list as it stands once you get past de la Hoya, and even shorter when you narrow the playing field to fighters campaigning at or around the junior middleweight division.

Even as the sport\'s most bankable star, de la Hoya felt the effects of a sport dramatically on the decline, ratings-wise. His May 3 win over Forbes was well received when viewed in a vacuum, but not the type of return they could\'ve expected for a broadcast that came with upwards of a $10 million price tag.

The moral of the story is that fans will no longer tolerate mismatches – perceived or otherwise - in today\'s market. Mike Tyson can no longer claim to be able to sell out Madison Square Garden masturbating. While Oscar de la Hoya can still put 27,000 into a soccer stadium against someone like Forbes, such fights no longer register with the average viewer pondering what to do with their Saturday evening.

It is in that vain that December 6 is rapidly approaching a Plan B.

Even if some time between now and next week a fight with Manny Pacquiao is made, there\'s a little something called an under card to fill up. But considering the cost it will take just to piece together the headlining act (upwards of $50 million, if reports of Manny receiving $15 million from a 30-70 purse split are accurate), what will be left over to recruit a supporting cast?

This same issue faced the May 5 \"The World Awaits\" event, when Mayweather and de la Hoya met in front of a record-breaking pay-per-view audience and live gate.

Those cashing the checks at night\'s end will argue otherwise that such a dilemma existed, since 2.4 million still tuned in. Yes, the number is earth-shattering and, given the state of the game today, will most likely join the likes of Joe Louis\' 25 consecutive heavyweight title defenses and Henry Armstrong\'s simultaneously holding three legitimate world titles as records that will never be broken.

But of that 2.4 million (which of course is even larger in actual viewership since nobody watches a $55 PPV event alone), it can be reasoned that less than one percent of that group can recall off of the top of their head whom appeared, much less won, on the under card.

(Rocky Juarez and Rey Bautista, for those of you still racking your brain.)

Even more miniscule is the number of people who can tell you that the evening\'s preliminary winners would go on to lose their next fight – and neither in competitive fashion (Bautista on the wrong end of a highlight reel first round knockout against Daniel Ponce de Leon, Juarez suffering a virtual shutout against Juan Manuel Marquez).

At the time, it was suggested by Golden Boy that \"with a main event like this, does the under card really matter?\"

The answer is an emphatic yes.

High-profile cash-grab fights have become an accepted part of the sport. Such matchups serve their purpose, as it always takes a household name or two to reel in the casual fan. But while we have them here, why not show them what else the sport has to offer.

Such a practice was the standard in the early-to-mid 1990\'s, otherwise known as the Tyson-less era. Don King was forced to promote, which led to no fewer than three championship fights per pay-per-view telecast. Some shows were so loaded that titlists were forced to toil before the cameras began rolling, giving boxing fans a reason to show up for more than just the recognizable name(s) in the main event.

The game has changed. Such bouts that would qualify as under card filler just a generation ago are now considered worthy of seven-figure license fees on premium networks. Such is the reason why we have a fall season filled with boxing cards, but very few that run any deeper than the main event.

Even fewer are the number of shows that speak to the future of the sport.

HBO has an impressive eight Saturday\'s locked in from September 6 through November 22, with plans also in place to fill up November 29 and of course December 6. Of the eight main events over that stretch, only three include both participants that are coming off of wins.

One of the three is an October 4 Boxing After Dark event, which also happens to be HBO\'s only telecast to presently include a co-feature where both sides not only won their last bout, but all of their pro fights to date. It\'s also fitting that it\'s the only card among the lot that exclusively features undefeated rising stars (Alfred Angulo and Yuriorkis Gamboa) on the A-side of the promotion.

It\'s a far cry from the preceding show, when Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga meet on a September 27 HBO World Championship Boxing headliner. That Mosley, who turns 37 next month and hasn\'t won a fight in well over a year, enters as an 8-1 favorite speaks volumes of the insignificance of the matchup, even if it proves to be fun for however long it lasts.

The September 27 show is one of five shows in which Golden Boy serves as either lead or co-promoter over the aforementioned 12-weekend period, which doesn\'t include Lou DiBella\'s November 15 show that features Jermain Taylor against Golden Boy-promoted Jeff Lacy.

Including Oscar\'s December 6 grand finale – whomever it might be against, HBO hosts (at least) one PPV event in each of the four remaining months of the year. Among the headliners, Kelly Pavlik, who faces Bernard Hopkins on October 18, is the only fighter of the bunch that figures to be a factor at the sport\'s top level by this time next year.

Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe (who fights Roy Jones on November 8) and de la Hoya are already talking retirement. Sure, fighters say it all of the time only to overstay their welcome. But all three are at the age – and for Hopkins and de la Hoya, a point in their career, skill-wise – where it\'s a plausible option.

Not very far behind them are Jones, still looking to add to his legacy in the twilight of his career, Mosley or Joel Casamayor and Juan Manuel Marquez, who meet on September 13.

Casamayor resurrected his career earlier this year with a bailout knockout of Michael Katsidis to defend his linear lightweight crown. One week prior, Marquez came thisclose to claiming the vacant world super featherweight title after dropping a heartbreaker in his rematch with Manny Pacquiao. The Mexican is still among the world\'s best fighters, but is 15 years and 53 fights into his pro career, with his 35th birthday coming before his lightweight title challenge.

Oscar de la Hoya recently mentioned his overwhelming desire to end his fighting career with a big bang, but where the greater focus should lie in his wanting to enter life as a full-time promoter with a mighty roar.

Snatching up as many HBO dates as possible underlines where Golden Boy Promotions stands in today\'s industry – if not at the very top, then damn close to it. But as one of the leaders of the new school, they should be looking to invest into the future a lot more than the present game plan of a 2008 4th quarter overrun with expensive victory laps for the ghosts of boxing past.