Golden Boy Promotions snap at Don King entry in the Mayweather - Pacquiao saga
Months of effort, and nothing to show for it. Nothing to show but failed negotiations and a distancing Bob Arum. Oh, and a Manny Pacquiao sponsored lawsuit for defamation of character. After months of failing to get the biggest fight of the past decade, Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather signed, it's not to hard to see why Golden Boy Promotions' nerves might be getting a little frayed and their patience thin seeing Don King getting involved in the saga.
Golden Boy Promotions has its back against the wall as King enters the picture and hopes to make it good with Mayweather – Pacquiao. The various camps came to fighting words recently when King said he understands Mayweather due to sharing a common background with him, something Golden Boy CEOs Richard Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya cannot attest to. King said of his position: "I love him [Mayweather], I understand him because I'm one of him. I am one of the masses, not the classes. I'm from the hood too and I also speak Ghetto-ese. I can relate, communicate and identify. And that's something they don't do."
In a retaliatory statement, Richard Schaefer upped the ante by saying that Mayweather should be embarrassed by King’s statements.
"I mean, if I were Floyd Mayweather, I would frankly feel embarrassed. Floyd Mayweather has become a Madison Avenue darling who commands the respect from Fortune 100 companies. Now, he's got Don King out there talking about ghetto-ese."
Schaefer added: "It's really an insult to the Mayweather brand. I really think so. To have this guy, this D-Rex talking about it like that -- it's just embarrassing to everybody. I don't know what that relationship is. I can't speak about somebody else's relationship. But to read about this D-Rex talking that this ghetto-ese language is how he can relate to Floyd -- it's just bad. I just felt that it was very insulting."
‘D-Rex’ is a name Schaefer has dubbed Don King, along with ‘B-Rex’ for Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum, seemingly to poke fun at their old age and loss of touch with the sport.
Many are wondering if Schaefer’s comments will do Golden Boy any favours, or whether they will simply provoke a fight they will have little to no sway in. Somehow Schaefer already sounds like a defeated man, a man willing to sell his highest financial prospects to the dogs in the name of external circumstances.
Mayweather has been represented by Golden Boy in his last four fights, despite officially being without a promoter. He encourages his own promotion company, “Mayweather Promotions,” but acknowledges the necessity of a middle-man in the larger fights.
Save for Schaefer, many are viewing King’s recent pursuit of Mayweather as an interesting addition to the sport’s commentary that may well prove successful. King spent last week wining and dining with Mayweather, and invited him to his card in St. Louis on Saturday, where the two could be seen sharing laughs together in the audience.
If King manages to sign Mayweather and get him on board for a Pacquiao bout, he will have managed to do what Golden Boy Promotions could not. That will not be an easy stain to rub out, and neither will the potential financial gains of the bout, which are expected to exceed anything in the history of the sport. In this light, it makes sense that Schaefer would be retaliating in a somewhat desperate mode.
Schaefer does himself no favours by insulting Mayweather by calling him a “Madison Avenue darling.” This may be true, but it doesn’t seem like a highly calculated business tactic, just the talk of a kamikaze promoter. Calling Mayweather out hasn’t worked in wooing him yet, and there’s no reason to believe it will now.
If one man seems to know this, it does appear to be King, who is catering to Mayweather by seeking identification, as oppose to distance. King also acknowledged that he wants to get the people on Mayweather’s side, which is presumably something the champ himself would find hard to resist.
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