By Norm Frauenheim–
Oscar De La Hoya’s induction to the International Boxing Hall of Fame Sunday a few days after the tumult of Richard Schaefer’s resignation as the CEO of his company, Golden Boy Promotions, could be mere coincidence. Could be something else, too. Friendship is the biggest feint of all in a balkanized business defined by shifting alliances and suspicion more abundant than loyalty. The timing of Schaefer’s resignation is just another suspect. Couldn’t it have been scheduled for, say, next Monday? Couldn’t it have been put off until De La Hoya was allowed to enjoy a short afternoon in honor of his long ring career? It’s not as if Schaefer’s departure was a surprise.
Bad timing? Bad manners? Or all of the above? Pick your poison, but it’s awkward, first and foremost. It’s a symptom of real rancor within the messy divide that split De La Hoya and the able executive, who turned his company into a promotional power. It’s also a further sign of what’s next and it’s not pretty. Nasty lawsuits loom. Lawyers figure to collect bigger purses than the fighters. Can it be avoided? Yeah, maybe. But there’s been a certain sense of inevitability about this whole affair. Only a fool would have predicted there’d be no Schaefer-De La Hoya divorce.
It’s hard to know where it goes once the first legal brief gets filed. That’s because De La Hoya has yet to know what’s left of his company. He issued a short statement Wednesday night.
“Golden Boy Promotions is moving ahead on all fronts,” De La Hoya said. “We look forward to continuing and expanding our key position in the boxing world and to providing the public with the very best the sport has to offer.”
Translation: Get back to me after I can figure out who is under contract and who isn’t. That could take a while. In the end, only a court might be able to decide.
Other than junior-middleweight star Canelo Alvarez and former featherweight champion Abner Mares, it’s simply not clear who has a contract with Golden Boy and who has one with Al Haymon. Emerging light-heavyweight Adonis Stevenson thanked Haymon and called him his “manager” after a Showtime-televised victory over Andrzej Fonfara a few weeks ago. Yet, Haymon isn’t licensed as a manager or promoter in any boxing jurisdiction. As far as anybody knows, he only has driver’s license
During a news conference before Floyd Mayweather Jr, Haymon’s celebrity client, beat Marcos Maidana on May 3 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand , De La Hoya said that he didn’t know who he had under contract.
He doesn’t know because of a wrinkle that only threatens to make the mess a lot messier. While still the Golden Boy CEO, Schaefer was quoted by Yahoo as saying that some fighters were under contract to Golden Boy and some weren’t. The lingering question is why and when Schaefer allowed them to sign with Haymon while fighting under the Golden Boy banner. Did the fighters seemingly aligned with Golden Boy sign with Haymon while De La Hoya was in rehab? Whether Schaefer fulfilled his fiduciary responsibility to Golden Boy is beginning to look like another issue only a court can decide.
Meanwhile, there’s widespread speculation that Schaefer will eventually join Haymon in a formal alliance with Mayweather in a re-constituted rival to Bob Arum’s Top Rank and a further impediment to the chances of Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao ever happening.
“I’m in the fight of my life,” the 41-year-old De La Hoya said a month ago.
It’s a fight that will demand the resiliency, resourcefulness and energy he displayed in two victories over Julio Cesar Chavez, again against Ike Quartey and then Fernando Vargas.
He figures to get help from Arum, who is 82 and still fighting because of the very battles that have exhausted so many others, yet energize him. De La Hoya renewed his relationship with Arum, his original promoter. The move further angered Schaefer, who has vowed to never again work with a tireless personality who has given new meaning, if not life, to the term octogenarian.
At some point, it’s inevitable that Arum and De La Hoya will again do business. That could renew chances of Canelo in a fight against the Arum-promoted Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a bout that was such a hot possibility among Mexican fans a few years ago. The weight difference might be an issue. Nevertheless, Gennady Golovkin, a small middleweight, was close to an agreement for a fight with Chavez Jr. The bout fell apart because of a squabble between Chavez and Arum over a contract extension. It had noting to do with weight. If Golovkin can fight Chavez, so can Canelo, who is growing out of the 154-pound division.
An intriguing, perhaps promising byproduct of the De La Hoya-Schaefer split is similar talk about fights that had been dismissed for the last couple of years because of the Golden Boy-Top Rank feud. Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach is talking about Danny Garcia as a possibility for the Filipino superstar. It still has to be determined whether Garcia is under contact to Golden Boy or Haymon. But at least there’s talk where there was none among disaffected fans weary of a feud that has shut so many doors.
It’s a beginning.
Still, theres no way to know if and when it will ever end.
For now, we can only be certain that Schaefer won’t introduce De La Hoya for his Hall of Fame induction.
