THE STORY SO FAR
In recent weeks we have run two articles quoting rival promoters that have cast Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) in a negative light. They have been charged with “poaching fighters” nurtured by other promoters, using Oscar’s huge earnings to offset losses incurred in the free agent market, favoritism from HBO, and being the “Wal-Mart” of the boxing business. Also, they have been threatened with lawsuits by two rival promoters, Bob Arum and Gary Shaw, for signing contracts with Manny Pacquiao and Diego Corrales respectively, while their promotional contracts were still in effect.
Previous efforts here to contact GBP to get their side of the story were unsuccessful. After the stories were published, Golden Boy’s CEO, Richard Schaefer, to his credit, agreed to speak to us in an effort to rebut the negative allegations and present his point of view.
We spoke for 70 minutes last week, with Schaefer replying to a wide range of questions. He replied to them all in great detail without attempting to avoid any topic, even answering some questions before they were asked. His responses will be presented as closely as possible in their unabridged form, omitting only repetitive statements and because of the volume of content we will be presenting the interview in two parts. Part Two will be offered on 15 Rounds on Tuesday, November 14.
RICHARD SCHAEFER
Richard has been with Oscar for six years and is generally credited with being the architect of Golden Boy’s meteoric success during that brief time. He was born in Bern on October 25, 1961, and was raised in Switzerland.
After an education in banking, he began his career with Swiss Volksbank, then came to Los Angeles in 1988 with Swiss Bank, (now UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland), and continued to get promotion after promotion until he was named Deputy CEO of Banking Operations in the United States in 1997. He was young, incredibly successful, and destined for a life of comfort and wealth.
Richard married his wife Lilia in 1994, and they have three children, ages, 12, 10, and 9.
“It was the smartest thing I’ve ever done,” he says of his marriage. “She’s just fantastic, she really allows me to do what I have to do to build up the business. It’s really important to have someone at home where you know the kids are taken care of.”
Richard met Oscar in 1995 through Raul Jaimes, Lilia’s nephew and longtime De La Hoya friend, who is now the Vice-President of Boxing Operations for Golden Boy. A few years later, Oscar approached Schaefer to build a business for him and in the year 2000 he left the banking business to make history with De La Hoya, intrigued with the possibilities in the burgeoning Hispanic market with the charismatic De La Hoya as the face of the company.
It was a calculated gamble that has paid off well. Today they operate out of the 12 story headquarters known as the “Golden Boy Building” on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, enjoying enormous success as a promotional company on the top tier of the industry.
ANSWERING THE ALLEGATIONS
As previously stated, not everyone is convinced of the motives and methods of the Golden Boy operation. Richard Schaefer went on the record to answer his detractors and describe his vision for Golden Boy.
Swann: Are you still promoting Chico Corrales and if so, when is his first fight?
Schaefer: “Well hopefully. We were copied a letter from Gary Shaw where he claims he still has promotional rights for Chico Corrales . A lot of people were copied, short of Jim Lampley and Harold Lederman from HBO just about everyone else that you could think of. But Chico Corrales subsequently responded back to Gary and asked, ‘I was not aware of signing any promotional or Showtime agreement, would you please be so kind as to send me a copy to refresh my recollection?’ And he has not received a copy of that agreement.
“When I saw a copy of that letter, I went on the record saying that, of course, if there is a valid promotional agreement we would, of course, withdraw as Chico Corrales’ promoter because the last thing we want is to interfere with an existing valid contract.
“What is interesting though is that in reference to William Trillo [Pound4pound.com] in the article you called brilliant, which I don’t think is that brilliant because if he had checked with us, which he didn’t, I would have told him.
“Prior to signing Chico Corrales I called Gary Shaw and told him as you know there are a number of promoters trying to retain and sign services for Chico Corrales. We obviously are one of them who are interested, and he [Shaw] acknowledges that. I talked to him and he said, ‘Well, I’m trying to sign him as well.’ Not one time did he say to me that, ‘Hey, I still have a promotional contract and I ask you not to interfere.’ And that obviously is very unfortunate. I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you had an agreement?’ He said, ‘Well you didn’t ask me directly.’ I said, ‘C’mon, I’m calling you telling you I’m interested in Corrales, you told me you wanted to re-sign him as well, why didn’t you just tell me you had a contract with him?’ He said, ‘I don’t have to tell you anything.’ He told me other things in the conversation that I don’t want to repeat because I respect Gary Shaw and I have nothing against the man.
“[James] Prince, his [Corrales] manager was mentioned as well. Why didn’t Richard call Prince? Well, I did call Prince. As a matter of fact I even negotiated the contract with Prince. Shane Mosley was on the phone, I was on the phone, James Prince was on the phone. James Prince actually asked our attorney to send him a copy of the contract, so he was part of that. Why didn’t he say , ‘Richard we can’t because there’s a valid contract.’ He knew we were going to sign Diego Corrales. There’s a track record on our email. There was no conspiracy that we were trying to take him [Corrales] from another promoter. We checked with the fighter, we checked with the promoter, and we checked with the manager.”
Swann: How about the Pacquiao signing?
Schaefer: “Again, his attorney was there and we negotiated the contract very thoroughly. If Bob Arum feels he wants to sue us, he should. In return I’m asking him [Arum] what your claims are and he sent what he claims they are and there’s nothing to it. So again, it’s other promoters trying to bully their way around, and it just doesn’t fly with us. I believe in the end the truth will always come out. I sleep well at night because I know I’m doing the right thing. Anybody can sue anybody. We’ve gotten sued in the past and, touch wood, we’ve always won.”
Swann: Shouldn’t someone have checked the status of the contracts with Corrales and Pacquiao?
Schaefer: “These are two different cases. Chico Corrales said he didn’t [have an existing contract]. Yes, I think a promoter should look into it and not take the fighter’s word, absolutely.
“In one case we had Manny’s attorney involved and he knew what was signed and not signed. We checked with other people who checked and confirmed that Manny Pacquiao is a promotional free agent, but I’d rather not name those other people . When he [Arum] does go to the lawsuit, people will find out who these people are.
“ As to Diego Corrales, if a fighter asked me [ for a copy of the contract] I would just send it to him and I would send a copy of the Showtime agreement. If they’re signed and they’re done, what is the big mystery? If I signed a deal and I’m still obligated to provide certain services, I’m going to provide those services. We said that even though we checked, if a contract pops up, that’s fine with us , too.”
Swann: How about the charge that Golden Boy cannot develop talent and steal talent from other promoters after they develop them?
Schaefer: “ We develop talent. For example, take Ponce De Leon. We brought him along. He’s world champion now and he’s been on HBO several times. Johhny Gonzales, one of the most talked about , exciting fighters, we brought him along. Israel Vasquez is a guy who has been around, but we brought him into prominence. So is Joan Guzman. We create the opportunities and it’s up to them to deliver. Another guy we brought along from the beginning was Librado Andrade, who is ranked #1 [super middleweight] in the world and is the mandatory to Mikkel Kessler. He was built up on HBO Latino and Telefutura. So there are a number of fighters that we have built up and frankly I don’t know any other promoter who can say they have developed as much talent as we have done in the last few years.
“You know a lot of that is driven from jealousy. When you are successful, it breeds jealousy.”
On Wal-Mart…
Schaefer: “ I must compliment Kathy Duva. At least she is open enough to go public with her feelings. While other people hide and don’t want to be named in public because they’re afraid that it will have consequence and make me out to be that monster.
“Her Wal-Mart comment, I don’t know, I take it as a compliment. Because Wal-Mart is one of the largest employers here in the United States and allows customers to shop at competitive prices. Their charitable contributions are very significant. Their management is first class. If you look at the 10 richest people in the United States, five of them are Waltons. So if Kathy calls us Wal-Mart, I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of. You take care of the fighters, you take care of the fans, just like Wal-Mart takes care of their employees and their customers.
“I think if you recognize the responsibility that you have being the leader, and you act accordingly, then I think it’s okay. And I think we’ve acted accordingly. We haven’t taken people hostage or played against each other. We’re very loyal to HBO, we’re loyal with our venues, with the MGM group. We don’t go and involve these kinds of people in bidding wars, going from one street to another to see who pays us more. That’s not our philosophy. Our philosophy is to build on honesty and transparency and trust and mutual respect. I think this is what has brought us so far in such a short time. Because boxing is not used to that. It’s never been done like that.”
Swann: Are you a tough taskmaster? Are you arrogant?
Schaefer: “ I tell you I may have a different negotiating style than other people in boxing have. Usually, the way things are negotiated in boxing is they start with the low number and the other guy starts at the high number and they basically have these endless hour long, day long, week long negotiation, then they finally get the end result. I call it the used car salesman tactic. You have a customer and the guy really wants to sell the car and it’s just painful negotiations. I don’t have the time because we are so busy with other things for Oscar, for our business. So I basically say ‘Let’s cut to the chase,’ and that’s my negotiating style. I say ‘This is what it is and you can take it or leave it.’ What I say might come across as arrogant but it really isn’t. As long as I have my fighters behind me, we just move on to the next. It’s just aimed at saving time for everybody.
“I’m a down to earth man and a family man and I try to do the right thing. When I left the bank behind, these guys are still my friends. I don’t lie. You can ask me the same question 10 times and you’ll get the same answer 10 times. I just say things the way it is. I live a good life and if people are jealous, I can’t change that. If people want to sue, I can’t change that. I just try to do the right thing.”
Swann: Do you get favored treatment from HBO and is it because of Oscar’s status as a fighter?
Schaefer: “ Well, I’m sure that Oscar’s status has a lot to do with it but I have to tell you [it also is because] if you are honest with somebody and you are basically giving someone the best and biggest fights without playing them against each other. Marco Antonio Barrera is a free agent, Sugar Shane Mosley is a free agent. Oscar’s contract is running out in a year. Bernard Hopkins doesn’t have a contract with HBO. For that matter, not a single one of our fighters has a network contract with HBO.
“So what does that mean? I could go to Showtime, I could go to anyone else. I could do an independent PPV event without paying HBO a distribution fee and things like that and no one could stop me. I could say what you pay for this and what you pay for that. I could negotiate with Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian from the MGM group, I could go to Caesars, I could do all of that. If you don’t and you’re loyal and you treat each other with respect and integrity, you don’t go with these ridiculous negotiations that last forever. If you deal with your partners like that, I would hope you would have preferential treatment. If you wouldn’t it would be a one way street. If you treat someone good and you look out for them and give them a product they like and you’re fair with them, wouldn’t you expect to get the same kind of treatment in return?”
Swann: I think the complaint from the other promoters is that they are not getting dates because of the preferential treatment.
Schaefer: “ You know it’s very easy. HBO or the other networks that do boxing, they’re really not in the boxing business. They’re in the ratings business. So every promoter should ask themselves, how do I get dates? It’s really very simple. You get the fighters, so you have the content, then you get the dates. If someone wants to get the dates on HBO, what do you do? You get all of the fighters.”
Swann: Can you foresee a scenario in which you would ever go to Showtime?
Schaefer: “ It’s actually an interesting question you just asked. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. At the end of the day you just have so many fighters that no one network has enough dates. If some of those fighters are free agents.
“Take for example Juan Diaz, who was a free agent and we talked to him like every other promoter in the United States talked to him. Like Joe De Guardia sent free pizzas to Juan Diaz’ gym and his house and Artie Pellulo flying down trying to convince him, obviously Don King, Arum, everyone was after him. When Willie Savannah [Diaz’ manager] made the call to Dan Rafael telling him that they’re going to sign with Golden Boy Promotions, confirming what he told me, what he told Oscar, confirming what his attorney told our attorney, and then suddenly it didn’t work out and everyone was enraged because ‘another guy goes to Golden Boy,’ and so on, and yet he ended up with Don King and nobody really said anything.”
Swann: But I think you were blamed for driving up the price.
Schaefer: “ If you analyze the deal, it would have been a good deal for Juan, it would have been a good deal for us too. I am here to make good deals because I have share holders to report to, and at the end of the day it is my own because I am a significant stockholder in the company. It’s my own profit, it’s my own money. So believe me, I don’t want to do bad deals and I’m not here to cry about the price. We put it on the table, this is what we have, and King came and offered more, so good for him.”
Swann: What is Oscar’s next fight?
Schaefer: “ Floyd Mayweather. He basically gave me my marching orders and said, ‘See if you can get it done and here’s the deal.’ Again people might think I’m arrogant, but I’m not going to negotiate for hours or days or weeks. It’s going to be an honest effort. I know Floyd Mayweather has smart people behind him, led by Al Haymon, who is another boxing guy who was a business guy. So I’m confident that we can put that fight together.”
JUST AN OPINION
Since the time of this interview, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Carlos Baldomir to take the welterweight title. However, both Schaefer and De La Hoya have been quoted as being displeased with his performance which drew boos from the fans. Depending upon your perspective, either Floyd put on a clinic and simply used his speed and quickness to win in a virtuoso performance, or Floyd made it a tedious affair , void of entertainment value by landing just enough shots to win virtually every round as he backpedaled out of distance, avoiding engagement for 12 rounds.
In any event, one has to wonder why Oscar would want to close his career in such an event, being made to look foolish by chasing Floyd around the ring. While this style may offer Floyd a competitive advantage over bigger, slower men, Oscar is already the big draw and despite Floyd’s dominance in victory, his market value probably declined.
NEXT… Golden Boy, Part Two – The Business, coming this Tuesday.
