and are on a roll?at least for now?
Just about four years ago, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions had been the patsy for one of the greatest boxing hustles of all time.
After De La Hoya had spent Golden Boy money to build the careers of Al Haymon fighters such as Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, Shawn Porter, and Leo Santa Cruz (among others), it was revealed that none of those fighters actually had a promotional contract with the company.
Some have speculated that Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer was working in cahoots with Haymon to spirit talent away from Golden Boy and to Haymon?s new boxing project while De La Hoya languished in a haze caused by drug and alcohol addiction. A lawsuit over this was filed, an eight-figure settlement was reached, and most of Golden Boy?s talent, built through Golden Boy efforts, walked away. All that was really left was Canelo Alvarez?Oscar?s biggest star, but one who had always been, contractually, more of a partner than a client?and an aged Bernard Hopkins, plus a handful of kids.
Documents from a subsequent failed effort to sue Haymon revealed just how dire Golden Boy?s situation had become. According to those court documents, Alvarez accounted for 94% of Golden Boy?s income from boxing operations in 2015 and all of their income through the first half of 2016.
But things have come around for the promotional company once thought to be close to its deathbed and this past week may have cemented its ?full comeback? status.
Golden Boy not only signed the fight its star had been eager to make by finalizing Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev on November 2, but it also buried the hatchet with its biggest young draw Ryan Garcia, signing the 21-year-old social media star to a big-money multi-fight deal, after some ugly and very public back-and-forth bickering threatened to tear their relationship apart.
For the last several weeks, Golden Boy had been taking shots from both Alvarez and Garcia, who train together under Eddy Reynoso, about perceived mishandling of their careers. Alvarez took aim at Oscar and company over an agreement apparently done in his name and without his knowledge that saw him stripped of the IBF middleweight title when a deal with mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko couldn?t be reached in a timely fashion. Garcia, meanwhile, blasted Golden Boy over purse issues as well as a clear shot taken at him by the promotional company on social media, essentially calling him scared for refusing to take on a last-minute replacement for their September 14 show.
In Garcia?s case, things got so heated that the undefeated prospect asked for Golden Boy to release him if they weren?t happy with his work.
But all of that Canelo/Garcia stuff is apparently water under the bridge. And not only did Golden Boy keep their star fighters happy by resolving the outstanding issues, but they turned the resolutions into marketable events?with Garcia fighting the guy he was indirectly accused of ducking, Romero Duno, on the undercard of the Alvarez-Kovalev bout.
Beyond the appeasement of Canelo and Garcia, the emergence of Vergil Ortiz Jr. as, arguably, the best prospect in the game and Jaime Munguia as one of the most entertaining young fighters in the business add some real depth to a stable that also boasts names such as Rey Vargas, David Lemieux, ?JoJo? Diaz, Diego De La Hoya, and Andrew Cancio. Throw in the lucrative deal they got piggybacking off the Canelo-DAZN deal and the big comeback looks to be the real deal.
Of course, Oscar is Oscar and the man always seems to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or, at the very least, inject some instability into a rolling-along good thing. This IS the guy, after all, who, last year, marked a long battle to regain sobriety by having to defend himself against an extortion plot from two supposed Instagram models who allegedly had a video of the former champ partying in his luxury apartment, inserting kitchen utensils into his rear end as part of the festivities. So, one never knows with this guy.
But, unless there?s some fantastic collapse on the horizon, things look good for Golden Boy Promotions right now. They?ve ditched the dumb and are on a roll?at least for now.
