Richard Schaefer tries to clarify Oscar De la Hoya's comments
Following Oscar De la Hoya’s bold comments to Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable, Richard Schaefer has decided to distinguish himself from his fellow Golden Boy CEO and clarify his company’s
raison d'etre.
De la Hoya recently inspired controversy, by saying "The Don Kings and Bob Arums have had a chokehold on this sport for the last 40 years. [...] Now, we have to think outside the box; we have to think
like the NBA and MLB and have one commission and one major promoter in the sport.”
Many interpreted the comments as a bid for domination of professional boxing, and concluded that would result in a number of far-reaching changes in the sport, for better and worse. De la Hoya appeared
to imply he wanted to stomp out smaller promotional companies and destroy the generative quality of business competition in boxing, a situation that currently guides Dana White’s Ultimate Fighting Championships, a mixed martial arts promotion.
"I don't think I'm following the UFC model," Schaefer said. “We have our own model, which is called the Golden Boy model. I don't have a problem working with other promoters, which we have shown in past
shows. What we want to be is, we want to be a home to any fighter who is a free agent.”
He continued: “We are interested in continuing to build our stable and expand our franchise both domestically and internationally and I think that's what he (De La Hoya) meant. I don't think that in boxing,
to be the only promoter is going to work. The entry level to become a boxing promoter is very low. There are always going to be a host of promoters out there."
Aside from that Schaefer stated his company is not set to exclusively promote in-house fighting, which would seem to be the reality if Golden Boy were ever to achieve a viable boxing monopoly. He added
that, despite an ongoing lawsuit with Top Rank Promotions, the personal bearings of things should have no place in halting business transactions and giving fans good inter-promotional fights.
"Whether it involves working with Top Rank or someone else, I don't think personal feelings between promoters should interfere with fights being made because that really short-changes the fans and you
short-change your fighters," Schaefer confessed.
Contacted in rebuttal to the question in his Las Vegas offices, Bob Arum was asked if he would do business with Golden Boy the way things stand right now.
“No comment,” he replied.
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