Jun 18, 2010 – It must be hard for Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, a life-long business man, to be running a company with a boxer.
Oscar De La Hoya, Schaefer’s associate at Golden Boy, is no businessman, no marketing guru, no public relations wizard. Oscar De La Hoya is a boxer.
So when a media member asked Oscar about the negotiations regarding Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, De La Hoya opened his mouth and promptly stuck his foot in it.
Let me go to a transcript of De La Hoya’s Sunday, June 6th, 2010 appearance on Spanish language network Univision’s Republica Deportiva.
[The segment was in SPANISH, but being a Spanish speaker from birth, I can assure you the translation to English is correct.]
On Air Personality: “The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, you are the promoter, Golden Boy Promotions was part of the efforts to make that fight the first time. What will it take to make this fight, they were talking about November, to make that fight, that all boxing fans want to see and would be good for the sport?”
Oscar De La Hoya: “Of course, obviously it has been a difficult negotiation, for many reasons.
But now, we are very, very close in finalizing these contracts.
Its been complicated but both fighters realize that this fight needs to be made.
It has to be made because the fans want this fight and it is the biggest fight in the world, for the boxing world.
Its going to be a super big fight. I think we are really, really close in finalizing those contracts.
I obviously cannot talk about the negotiations, but we are very close.”
Following De La Hoya’s comments, my colleague at The Boxing Truth John Chavez presented a brief report on the website titled “Oscar De la Hoya speaks on Pacquiao-Mayweather, “We’re very close to Finalizing the Contracts!” Prior to Chavez’s report, which was posted on June 11th,these comments made by De La Hoya received no media attention of significance. The moment Chavez presented De La Hoya’s clear statements, many English boxing news outlets quoted Chavez’s re-report of the situation.
Of course, eventually, the buzz created by Chavez’s brief post, got in the ears of Richard Schaefer who fired back on Thursday, June 17th by stating on AOL Fanhouse that Oscar was misquoted regarding the Pacquiao – Mayweather negotiations.
Poor Mr. Schaefer, you are either ignorant in regards to the Spanish language, or a liar. Read the quote, how was Oscar De La Hoya’s statement misquoted? He clearly stated on Univision that his Mayweather – Pacquiao was very close to being done.
Instead of questioning any media members who reported on De La Hoya’s comments by stating they misquoted Oscar, Mr. Schaefer could have simply said, “Oscar was incorrect in his statements.” In the current media, everything istransparent and lives on the Internet.
I guess it is hard for Schaefer to stand up to his “boss” and face of the company by admitting De La Hoya made an error.
Mr. Schaefer needs to do a better job of working with Oscar in terms of presenting a unified, clear message in the media – or in more simple words, keeping De La Hoya on a shorter leash when he interacts with the media. Remember, once again, De La Hoya is no business man, no marketing guru, or public relations agent, when asked about the fight, he most likely got caught up in the moment, released bad information, and Schaefer got left with the after-math and thought lying would be the best alternative.
