LAS VEGAS — It might be more intriguing than Saturday’s matchup between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana for the WBC welterweight championship. Certainly, the stakes could be just as high for the future of boxing.
A subplot to “The Moment,” the moniker used to promote Mayweather-Maidana, is “The Feud,” featuring Oscar De La Hoya and business partner Richard Schaefer. De La Hoya, the boxing legend, is president of Golden Boy Promotions, while Schaefer serves as its CEO. Together they have built the company into one of the largest boxing promotional companies in the world rivaled only by Top Rank led by Bob Arum.
It has been a harmonious existence, with De La Hoya using his fame and money to attract early investors while Schaefer, a former Swiss banker, handled the business, budget and the books. Golden Boy has been the lead promoter for all of Mayweather’s pay-per-view fights since 2007 and assembled an impressive stable of boxers including Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Maidana, and Amir Khan.
But the two are hardly speaking these days after De La Hoya emerged from his second extended stint in rehab questioning some of the company’s business practices and encouraging an end to the cold wars that Golden Boy Promotions has formed with Top Rank and HBO.
De La Hoya sounded very much like someone trying to get back his company during a press conference before Saturday’s fight.
“I’m here now,” he said in making his first public appearance in Las Vegas. “You can’t take me out. I have my vision and I have my plans and nobody is going to stop me from doing it. The company is named Golden Boy for a reason. This is the fight of my life right now. I love it. I can fight. I can win.”
De La Hoya’s views on ending the cold war — the “can’t we all just get along” approach — doesn’t sit well with Schaefer, who refuses to do business with Arum and has found a consistent buyer for his fights in Showtime, now headed by Stephen Espinoza, the former attorney for Golden Boy.
Truth is, Schaefer has been the face of Golden Boy since 2008, when embarrassing pictures emerged showing De La Hoya wearing fishnets. He soon entered rehab for drugs and alcohol, leaving the company and fallout for Schaefer to handle. De La Hoya entered rehab for a second time during the promotion of Mayweather’s fight with Alvarez last September. Schaefer assumed full duties and helped create the richest fight in boxing history.
De La Hoya wouldn’t clarify Schaefer’s status other than to say: “I’m the majority shareholder of the company and I’m the president of the company. Right now Richard is running Golden Boy Promotion as CEO of the company. I did bring him aboard. He did learn the game from me. We are a team.”
While De La Hoya remains the Golden Boy in nickname and will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame this summer, his shine has dulled.
Those aligned with Golden Boy are said to be nervous about the ramifications of De La Hoya questioning Schaefer while embracing Arum to the point of visiting him at his home this week in Las Vegas.
“No one really trusts Oscar to run the company,” a source close to the situation said.
Few would quibble with the job Schaefer has done. The gate for Mayweather-Maidana was expected to surpass $15 million, making it one of the highest grossing fights of all-time. And it was Schaefer on the dais this week when MGM Resorts International and AEG announced breaking ground on a new $375 million arena that will seat 20,000 for boxing, concerts, MMA and perhaps an NBA and NHL team.
He also has formed a close alliance with Al Haymon the powerful manager of many of the sport’s top boxers including Mayweather. Together they have funneled many of Haymon’s fighters through Golden Boy to appearances on Showtime.