Richard Schaefer steps down, and just like that, Golden Boy Promotions is no longer No. 1. But if you think that means Bob Arum?s Top Rank has regained the lead, you have not been paying attention.
Hint: Robert Guerrero defected to whom from Golden Boy this year?
Schaefer, who had pre-empted Golden Boy founder Oscar De La Hoya as front man for the operation, issued a statement that implied he?s leaving boxing, but considering the alliance he has formed with Showtime and Al Haymon, the power structure is most assuredly not askew and perhaps isn?t even altered.
Golden Boy, on the other hand, looks like it?s been picked over by hyenas. Guerrero is far from the only defector.
Some observers mistakenly believe Golden Boy?s diminished state means there?s no promotional arm to back up Floyd Mayweather and the rest of Haymon?s growing stable of clients for Showtime. Haymon is ostensibly a mere ?adviser? to Guerrero and the many others who have joined his flock in the past two or three years.
But don?t forget that Haymon made his fortune as a promoter of big time rock concerts, the biggest ever. And note that Mayweather is supposedly promoting his own bout in September ? via the framework Haymon and Showtime worked out last year.
Arum still has Manny Pacquiao and is HBO?s main source of talent, but for the future he has been relegated to five or six very talented sluggers of Eastern European origin who are very unlikely to be able to compete for eyeballs with Haymon?s largely American aggregate, notably nearly all of the African-Americans.
Andre Ward is currently on the HBO side of the ledger, and De La Hoya might bring what?s left of his enterprise back to HBO with a niche for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.
But Haymon is definitely in control.
