Oscar De La Hoya’s growing promotional empire now extends to the amateur sport after it was revealed he has teamed up with USA Boxing for the forthcoming Olympics and beyond.
Since dedicating most of his time to Golden Boy Promotions, ring legend De La Hoya has rapidly become a major player in the promotional side of the sport thanks to his huge profile and undoubted business acumen.
While his strategy of teaming up with household names such as former opponents Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright as business partners and signing up a roster of talented Latino fighters has helped him quickly establish himself as a leading promoter, a new “alliance” with USA Boxing will give him a foot in the amateur door.
The association has just announced the partnership, whereby the two organisations “will collaborate on numerous marketing, media, broadcast and consulting efforts” while the man himself will work with the Beijing hopefuls.
But the move will surely raise questions about potential vested interests.
Golden Boy Enterprises’ ownership of the highly-respected Ring Magazine prompted ripples of concern within the sport and the deal announced this week – which also mentioned both Ring Magazine and corporate sports giant AEG, another Golden Boy ‘affiliate’ – must also pose a few questions.
USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman was understandably buoyant about the injection of such high-profile support.
“Golden Boy Promotions has set the gold standard in terms of a top-quality approach to the sport and business of boxing,” he said.
“This alliance will help USA Boxing accelerate its growth and development in many areas, while giving our elite athletes the benefit of more time spent with Oscar de la Hoya.”
Any leading figure using their influence or wealth to aid their country’s amateur sport deserves credit and gratitude – but even Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer admitted it was not a union born solely from the goodness of De La Hoya’s heart.
“Beyond the obvious sports marketing opportunities that this alliance offers both partners, we’re delighted about the important connection it establishes for Golden Boy Promotions with amateur boxing,” Schaefer said.
“USA Boxing events were important benchmarks in the early development of Oscar’s career and his Olympic gold medal in 1992 (in Barcelona) was one of the greatest moments in Olympic history.
“We are greatly looking forward to working with USA Boxing during these exciting years of its development.”
Golden Boy, USA Boxing and AEG will seemingly work together organising events and venues while Ring Magazine will “become a focal point of the alliance, relative to editorial coverage, advertising opportunities and subscription promotion for USA Boxing members”.
De La Hoya, meanwhile, will spend time at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center working with the squad. All credit to him for staying true to his roots and trying to help this generation enjoy the same Olympic success he did in 1992.
It will be interesting to see how many of the more successful Beijing team members take advantage of a ‘Golden’ opportunity to sign on the dotted line when they turn professional.
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Retired or not, Floyd Mayweather’s most impressive muscles are working as hard as they ever did in the ring.
Because while his most recent retirement may even be a permanent one, his mouth remains as active as ever.
Ricky Hatton said after their much-hyped showdown last December that he had been amazed by Mayweather’s trash talk – not because it was unusual, but because the American actually believed every word of it and wasn’t simply hamming it up for the cameras.
Even since announcing he would not box again a few weeks ago, Mayweather has rarely been too far from the headlines.
And the man who probably spawned the motto ‘no such thing as bad publicity’ has vaulted back into the spotlight with a volley of foul-mouthed tirades in recent days.
It seems his ego really is as big as his bank balance – and a cynic might suggest the timing of these outbursts was not purely coincidental.
Because barely a week after Manny Pacquiao destroyed David Diaz to stake a serious claim for Mayweather’s old ‘pound-for-pound’ crown, Pretty Boy Floyd came out with some vitriolic self-publicising even by his notorious standards.
Speaking with his local newspaper Grand Rapids Press – his first interview since formally announcing his retirement last month – Mayweather labelled Pacquiao and the other leading fighters “bums” and accused American pay-TV giant HBO of racial bias against black fighters.
Among the numerous gems in his interview, Mayweather predicted he will be a billionaire by the end of this year and hit out at old foe De La Hoya.
Ultimately, though, Mayweather insists he will not fight again.
“I’m through. Once I tell people I’m through, I’m through,” said Floyd, who retired before returning to fight Hatton.
“People say, ‘oh, he retired and came back after the De La Hoya fight’. I didn’t retire and come back. I just fought one more fight, against Ricky Hatton.
“And as soon as I beat him, it was, ‘what about this guy’? and ‘what about that guy’?
“It’s never good enough. Some boxing people weren’t going to be happy until I take a loss, and that’s not ever going to happen. I achieved all I wanted to achieve.”
