By Robert Morales

Richard Schaefer on Monday spoke to BoxingScene.com in cool, yet peeved tones, about the shots promoter Bob Arum took at Golden Boy Promotions on Saturday from Atlantic City, where Arum had just promoted a card featuring junior featherweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez.

In the aftermath of Lopez's ninth-round stoppage of Olivier Lontchi, Arum blasted HBO for giving Golden Boy so many dates this year, leaving little for anyone else. Arum said he wasn't blaming Golden Boy, but at the same time he referred to his rivals' fighters
as "retreads."

Arum also took dropped a big bomb on Victor Ortiz, who 3,000 miles away on the same night was stopped in the sixth round by Marcos Maidana at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Arum's Top Rank Inc. holds a financial interest in Ortiz after having previously promoted Ortiz before a rather unsavory breakup that led to Ortiz signing with Golden Boy.

Arum said in his interview Saturday that his matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, knew all along that Ortiz would be the type to quit when the going got tough.

Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy, on Monday was calm, but perturbed.

"I feel sorry for Bob. I felt that he was finally a changed man, that he has lost some of that hate he has," Schaefer said, an obvious reference to the war of words Top Rank and Golden Boy had a couple of years back. "But I guess a leopard never changes its spots. So I guess it is what it is."

Speaking of HBO's decision to set aside a certain number of dates for Golden Boy events, Arum said that was a bad move because Golden Boy is currently incapable of providing the fighters to fill those cards. However, while saying he doesn't blame Golden Boy, Arum doled out quite a hit.

"They gave their dates to one promoter, whose stable has now been wiped out," Arum told BoxingScene.com as well as other entities. "And all the good fighters are fighting, fortunately, at this point in time for us at Top Rank. And they would love to give us dates, but they can't this year and that's wrong. ... To give dates to one company, without being specific, with the hope that (Golden Boy) will get the top fighters to give them programming, instead of holding back and awarding the fight programs to the promoter who has the best fighters and the best fights, they can't do that this year because they've committed dates to Golden Boy, who now has no fighters except
retreads to put in."

Said Schaefer: "I read every line and I could just read the jealousy coming from his lips," Schaefer said. "The fact is we are very happy with our stable of fighters. And we are happy on how as soon as a fighter is a free agent, they want to come to Golden Boy. I'm happy for that. I'm happy that we are trying to give fighters what they want, which is big fights. I couldn't be more pleased with who we have at Golden Boy.

"We do what we do to put big fights together, dangerous fights. Some guys win, some guys lose." 

Ortiz lost his first real big fight on Saturday when he was stopped by the hard-hitting Maidana after having decked Maidana three times in the first two rounds. Although Ortiz said in the post-fight news conference he was willing to continue, his actions in the ring at the time of the stoppage as well as a post-fight interview in the ring indicated otherwise.

"I certainly don't see Victor as a quitter," Schaefer said. "I see him as a great young man who has had a really hard life. And to have some 8,600 fans scream his name in what was a great back-and-forth fight ... in the end, he came up short.

"There will be another day and another night. We are very proud of Victor at Golden Boy. If Bob Arum thinks so little of Victor, that he is a quitter and has no heart, maybe he should give up his financial interest if he thinks so little of him.

"For Bob Arum to make these malicious comments about Victor, I don't like it, I don't appreciate it. I think Bob Arum should apologize to Victor."

Schaefer said that to question someone's heart, "I really think that is crossing the line. But that's how Bob is. That's just the way he is. He's always going to be like that. And so be it. I'm not going to lose a minute's sleep over it."

As for the way business is going for Golden Boy, Schaefer said he likes the way things are going just fine. 

"We are a young company," Schaefer said. "We have been doing it for five years. He (Arum) has been doing it for a hundred years. I like the way we are doing it. We just work our course. Instead of crying and bitching about other people's business, we worry about our business."

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com.