In the past, Golden Boy Promotions CEO, Richard Schaefer, has had no problems in calling HBO his ’strategic partner’ and with the leverage they had with Oscar De La Hoya and his pay-per-view prowess, they forged a close- some would say ’cozy’- working relationship with the network that extended to Golden Boy ’partners’ Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins, which also included an output deal that gave them a certain amount of ’Boxing After Dark’ dates every year.
But right now there are question marks as to when and if Mosley and Hopkins will appear on HBO.
” Well, I’m working on all of that and I just want to tell you a couple things, when you are going to see me the next time, you will see a big difference, you will see that I have a few more gray hairs,” joked Schaefer, from his offices in Los Angeles on late Friday afternoon, before turning serious.” The other thing I want to say is that I am very disappointed, angry, upset, about the lack of respect that has been shown to ’Sugar’ Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins. And I am not going to tolerate that any longer.”
What bothers Golden Boy is that they were originally promised the December 5th slot on the network. A date that was slated for Mosley, who has not fought since knocking out Antonio Margarito in late January. Then as the Kelly Pavlik drama unfolded and his bout with Paul Williams had to be scrapped for October 3rd to possibly this later date, Schaefer complied with HBO’s request to move his card back. Golden Boy, Top Rank and AEG( which operates the Staples Center in Los Angeles) then made a deal for Mosley to face Joshua Clottey for the day after Christmas, believing that HBO was aboard with them. Only now, it seems that they are having second and third thoughts about going on December 26th.
But to add insult to injury, HBO now seems to have a preference for Mosley to face Andre Berto- another HBO staple- on January 30th, 2010. Problem is, that particular date was reserved for Hopkins, to commemorate his 45th birthday, which takes place just a few weeks before. So right now, Schaefer has two unhappy partners and no fights to speak off.
” I hope that things can be worked out in a proper way, in a proper manner,” he said.” That both guys will be given the respect that they deserve and the respect that they have earned. If somebody thinks that my kindness as weakness or incompetence, then they will have a rude awakening.”
Right now, if this partnership were a marriage, somebody would be sleeping on the couch. This is boxing’s version of Angela Jolie and Brad Pitt. A high-profile union that has hit a rough patch.
For the first time, perhaps Golden Boy sees life from the perspective of other promoters, who have always had problems with the bond between this company and the network. But Schaefer believes that this should prove that they have no real built-in advantage with HBO, stating,” I think that hopefully all these other promoters out there realize that my relationship with HBO is not that much different than the others. But at the end of the day, ’Sugar’ Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins are two of the top five pound-for-pound fighters, I would have to assume that if HBO doesn’t want to do business with them, then they should say so. They should say so and then we will go and move on somewhere else. But to string people along is the wrong way.
” These are partners of Golden Boy, but more importantly, they’re really friends. They have really become great friends and I am going to go and look out for them to the end. But having said all of that, I have been quiet in the last few week as it relates to these developments because I do believe- and still believe- that hopefully we can find something which is acceptable.”
Just what other options are available aren’t clear. At the tax bracket in which Mosley and Hopkins reside, HBO is really the only game in town, for now.
But Schaefer says,” I’m working on something and again, as I said, I hope I am going to have an amicable resolution to these issues which my friends and partners are going to be alright with.”
BERTO
Another problem that HBO has is that while moving the Mosley-Berto bout to 2010 would be one way to find the money to make that match-up a reality( being that there would be a brand new budget to work with), Berto’s brain trust is having serious reservations about sitting out the rest of the calendar year. His last outing was in late May, a 12-round snoozer against Juan Urango.
But here’s the thing, the fact that Berto would have had to actually take a reduction in compensation to face Mosley at $750,000 is mind-boggling. You’re telling me that he was getting above that amount to face the likes of Luis Collazo and Urango in front of relatively sparse crowds? Maybe the American economy was/is better than we all thought. Now, this is no knock on his handlers, in fact, they should be lauded, their jobs are to get their fighter paid well. Mission accomplished. And you have to be happy for Berto. Boxing’s a tough sport, you gotta get it, while the going is good.
HBO, though, needs to be questioned. In this marketplace, where it’s a buyers market and their main competitor doesn’t have nearly the working budget they are afforded, why are they doling out this amount of money to begin with? Now, this is a crazy idea, but maybe, just maybe, HBO should determine the value of a boxer by such novel concepts as the ratings they get, the type of gate receipts they total and who else is bidding against them for particular fights and fighters.
They have met the enemy- and it is themselves. Because nobody can bid against themselves quite like HBO. Scott Boras would have a field day against this crew.
Right now, that is the greatest impact this network has had on the boxing business. Fighters, who really aren’t draws, making inordinate amounts of money, who therefore are in a position where they don’t have to fight more than twice, perhaps three times a year, and can routinely turn down the most anticipated fights because they are already making a pretty nice living padding their records and bank accounts against rather non-threatening foes. Hey, from the boxers standpoint, you can’t knock the hustle.
As for HBO, well, they remind me of that NFL team that pays it’s back-up quarterback $7 million and wonders why it can’t manage the salary cap.
PURSE BID
The WBO has ruled that when WBO jr. welterweight titlist Tim Bradley faces interim champion Lamont Peterson, that the purse bid split will not be 50-50 or 60-40( in Peterson’s favor, because of some arcane WBO policy that penalizes a fighter for performing in his home state), but will instead be 78-22 in favor of ’the Desert Storm’.
Mike Miller, the attorney for Bradley found a stipulation in the WBO rulebook that stated that in a case like this, the last three purses of the two boxers would be totaled, and the percentage of each fighters from that total would be added up. And that percentage would become the purse split. For instance, if both fighters in their last six bouts made a million dollars combined and fighter A, made $750,000 of that total, then, that fighter would get 75-percent of the purse bid.
$575,000 was the winning bid for Bradley-Peterson( which was submitted by Gary Shaw), so under this formula, Bradley is set to receive $448,500 to Peterson’s $126,500.
Bradley’s manager Cameron Dunkin reacted to the news on Friday by saying,” The WBO did the right thing and they ruled in favor of Tim. Michael Miller did a great job, just an unbelievable job in going through their by-laws and seeing what was going on in their rules and bringing this to their attention and they did the fair thing. I want to thank all of them for doing the right thing.”
WEEKEND FLURRIES
There is a chance that the Bradley-Peterson fight could be moved from December 5th to the 12th, if Agua Caliente Casino is available…..Schaefer told me that Orlando Cruz-Cornelius Lock has replaced Zab Judah-Antonio Diaz on the Mayweather-Marquez undercard….Is Dan Hawkins on the hot seat at Colorado? He may not be coaching ’DIVISION ONE FOOTBALL!!! IN THE BIG 12!!!’ for much longer. At least not in Boulder… Don’t you just love the ESPN College Gameday theme song? Hey, they’re coming, to your ciiiity…..Just my opinion, nobody calls a better college football game like Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge….As you may have noticed where are going through some changes to our website, please bear with us. If you have any issues, questions or comments, feel free to contact me at [email protected]….Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing….
