By Rick Reeno
When Oscar De La Hoya formed Golden Boy Promotions in 2002, he had a vision of putting together the best possible fights and signing the best talent.
For the next few years, his company was flying high and signing up a who’s who of top name fighters – including Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera, Ricky Hatton, David Haye, Juan Manuel Marquez, Victor Ortiz and many others.
Golden Boy made a major statement in 2007, when De La Hoya stepped in the ring to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. on HBO Pay-Per-View. The fight shattered records with a gate of $19 million and 2.4 million pay-per-view purchases with a $130 million in revenue. That event jump-started Golden Boy’s promotional partnership with Mayweather. De La Hoya’s company co-promoted Mayweather’s last ten fights – including another record-breaking pay-per-view in 2013, Mayweather’s win over Saul Alvarez on Showtime PPV – which brought in a gate of over $20 million with 2.2 million pay-per-view buys and nearly $150 million in revenue.
But once De La Hoya retired from being an active fighter at the tail-end of 2008, his problems began. For several years, De La Hoya’s personal life was in chaos as he battled his addictions to alcohol and drugs. Those struggles steered him away from his company for extended periods of time. Giving full credit to a strong support system, De La Hoya eventually overcame his inner-demons by entering specialized rehab facilities.
During the majority of De La Hoya’s dark years, close friend and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer was in full command of running the day to day business.
Once he started getting back on his feet, De La Hoya became very frustrated with the state of Golden Boy. A huge chunk of the Golden Boy fighters were not contractually bound to his company.
All of those ‘non-contract’ fighters had one thing in common – they were contractually tied to manager/adviser Al Haymon – and it was Haymon who ultimately called the shots when it came to his fighters.
The friendship between De La Hoya and Schaefer began to crumble at the end of 2013. There were multiple disputes over Golden Boy using their resources to build Haymon’s fighters. A stable of fighters that Haymon , not Golden Boy, controlled.
Additionally, De La Hoya was furious that multiple fighters, who were being represented by Haymon, were never resigned when their promotional contracts expired – but they continued to get pushed under Golden Boy’s flag.
De La Hoya and Schaefer, once believed to be inseparable, had now drifted apart over conflicting opinions as to Golden Boy’s business model.
"Oscar is the major shareholder of Golden Boy. I have a significant stake in Golden Boy, but he has a different vision for the business than I do,” Schaefer told BoxingScene.com last year.
"This is not about Oscar, but sometimes you have a different vision on what you want to do with the business. You have a different vision and if I work somewhere and I'm the CEO - the C stands for chief. I have my vision on how to build the business and how to continue to grow the business. And if that vision is different, as it has been in other businesses, not just boxing, when suddenly the major shareholder and the CEO have a difference of opinion on how the business should go - they part ways but that doesn't mean it has to be a nasty split. You have a difference of opinion and everyone moves on."
A few weeks after that interview took place, everyone did move on and the split was indeed nasty.
As the inner-turmoil began to unfold in the press, Schaefer stepped down from the company in June of 2014. As the weeks passed by, De La Hoya began to clean house. Multiple terminations took place. And other employees within the company, who saw their pink slip coming, gave notice. During this period, De La Hoya initiated a legal action against Schaefer. The claims in the action were never disclosed, but most industry insiders speculate the issue at hand was Schaefer’s close relationship with Haymon and whether or not the former company CEO was operating in the best interest of Golden Boy by using their full resources to groom and showcase an army of fighters who were not under contract.
As 2015 rolled in, De La Hoya was exhausted with the situation and reached a confidential settlement with Schaefer. And, De La Hoya’s company reached a confidential financial agreement with Haymon to sever their business relationship. Haymon walked away with his fighters - including Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, Deontay Wilder Peter Quillin, Abner Mares, Marcos Maidana, Robert Guerrero, Keith Thurman, Andre Berto, Shawn Porter, Omar Figueroa, Errol Spence, Danny Jacobs and many others.
Losing an army of fighters wasn’t easy. But it was necessary, says De La Hoya. The former six division champion admits it was very difficult to match many of Haymon’s fighters against meaningful opposition. De La Hoya wanted to start fresh and he wanted a stable of fighters that were contractually tied to his company.
“Actually a handful of years ago is when I started to ask myself 'you know what… we're not doing what we do best and putting on the best fights. This is not the vision that I had for so many years. This is not where I want to take Golden Boy. I don't want to give fights that are mismatches. I don't want to give the fans one-sided fights.' That's not what Golden Boy is all about. Now that I have the freedom to work with my hands untied, we are going to do what we do nest and that's build and continue to grow our stable, grow the current champions we have at Golden Boy and give the fans what they deserve,” De La Hoya explained to BoxingScene.com.
"I’ve been focusing on Golden Boy. That's all I've been focusing on. I've been focusing on signing the future...future world champions from scratch. We know how to build fighters from scratch, because that's what we do best. It’s a process that I actually enjoy because we know how to identify talent and build them and take then to that championship level.”
Not long after their financial settlement, Haymon announced television deals with NBC and Spike TV. Some of the fights already finalized, as part of those ventures, include Robert Guerrero vs. Keith Thurman, Andre Berto vs. Josesito Lopez, Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson and Adrien Broner vs. John Molina.
According to De La Hoya, Golden Boy VP Eric Gomez made numerous attempts to make all of those matches in the last two years. Those attempts were unsuccessful. Instead of Garcia-Peterson, Golden Boy got Garcia vs. Rod Salka and Peterson vs. Edgar Santana. Instead of Thurman-Guerrero, Golden Boy got Thurman vs. Julio Diaz. Instead of Broner vs. John Molina, Golden Boy got Broner vs. Carlos Molina.
“All of those fights that are going to be televised on NBC - we made them. Eric has emails where we put them together. Those are the fights that we've wanted to make for a couple of years now. I haven’t seen one fight on NBC yet, but obviously I'm hoping that they're great fights and it continues. They are coming out with a big bang for the first one and I hope that it continues for the sake of boxing and the fans,” De La Hoya said.
After witnessing Haymon’s long rumored plans become reality, De La Hoya was convinced he made the right decision to rebuild the structure of his company.
“What I plan to do with Golden Boy is long term, continue to promote and continue to expand. We've done many championship fights, promoted the biggest events in boxing history and we're going to continue rebuilding. For me this is not a two, three or four year deal - this is long term. This company, Golden Boy Promotions....I plan on promoting until I'm 80 hopefully. I'm optimistic that we're going to be more than okay and continue to do what we do best,” De La Hoya said.
“What we do best is taking fighters from the bottom. What I mean from the bottom, is we promote these young kids from when they're first turning pro. People can watch them on Fox Sports 1, which is what we are doing now and watch them grow. Even when we're doing shows on Fox Sports 1, you have to put on good fights and you [as a fighter] have to be in good fights. That's the way you grow [as a fighter] and the fans get to know you and you gain the respect from everybody.”
In order to rebuild his company, De La Hoya had to reestablish relationships that were badly damaged during his years in recovery. For years, a deep hatred played out between Schaefer and Top Rank’s CEO Bob Arum, who promoted De La Hoya for the majority of his pro career. There was plenty of mud being slung by both sides and they refused to do business with each other for years – a situation which everyone in the industry called “The Cold War.”
In early 2014, De La Hoya felt the time was right to call Arum in order to eliminate the bad blood between them.
“I'll tell you a funny story. I tell my assistant 'I want to talk to Bob.' This is when I first made contact with him and this was like the first time that I'm ever going to talk with him in years. I called him directly to the Top Rank office. I said 'hi, is Mr. Arum there?' It was the receptionist [who answered] I think. [She said] 'he's in a meeting, can I take a message.' I said 'yes, can you tell him that Oscar De La Hoya [called].' And then you heard this [juggling of the phone]....the phone must have fell [out of her hand]. So then she puts me on hold and then another receptionist must have answered and she asked 'who is this?' And I said 'it's Oscar De La Hoya.' And again the phone must have fell [out of her hand],” De La Hoya said.
“And then they put me on hold again and passed me over to Dena duBoef. Dena was my publicist when I was with Top Rank. She knows me better than anyone at Top Rank. She was like 'Oscar? Is that you Oscar? Is somebody playing a prank?' And finally I got to Bob Arum and he was like 'hey Oscar, how are you doing?' It took like four people to get to Bob Arum. I'm glad it happened sooner than later. I respect Bob for what he’s done. Maybe some people won't agree with me, but he's done some great fights over the last few years. That fact that we're working together is good for the sport.”
While Golden Boy lost a lot of fighters when their company split with Haymon, they began making quick moves to restock the shelves. Golden Boy recently signed dangerous middleweight puncher David Lemieux, who is very TV friendly and growing in popularity. They gained a new world champion in Randy Caballero. They still promote highly regarded champion Leo Santa Cruz. Lucas Matthysse signed a five year extension with Golden Boy, and the company recently cut a deal with 50 Cent to co-promote James Kirkland.
And De La Hoya retained the biggest prize of them all – 24-year-old Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who draws high television ratings and sells boatloads of tickets. Canelo is considered by many, including Mayweather, to be the next face of boxing.
Canelo ‘s worth was put on display last year, when HBO and Showtime were battling with their checkbooks to secure him on an exclusive basis. After reviewing both deals, Canelo signed a multi-year agreement with HBO. The first fight of that deal is taking place in May, against Kirkland.
“Canelo is a fighter who people love watching because he's fan friendly and he's a fighter who is going to last for a very long time, because he doesn’t get hit. He's in wars but he doesn’t get hit. He's in your face, he'll make it a fan friendly fight because that's what the fans want to see. His next fight will be entertaining, explosive, in your face. Kirkland just sent me a text today, thanking me and telling me how excited he is and how motivated he is to shock the world. This is a real fight,” De La Hoya said.
Beyond boxing, De La Hoya is pushing forward with several other projects which he believes will benefit his company. One of those projects is De La Hoya TV - a Spanish-language sports and lifestyle channel aimed primarily at Hispanic men who follow boxing and other combat sports. The network will be offered to distributors as a free video-on-demand service starting in the spring before transitioning to a traditional channel with a subscriber fee.
The employees and the fighters may have changed since their launch in 2002, but De La Hoya maintains that Golden Boy’s goal is still the same - to put on the best possible fights.
“There are a lot of projects that I’m working on outside of boxing that are going to benefit Golden Boy Promotions. There are a lot of big events that we are incorporating into my company and we're going to continue to work away and I'm very excited and optimistic that we're going to continue to do what we do best and the fans are going to benefit,” De La Hoya said.
“We're going to continue to grow Golden Boy's profile. We’ve working on a lot of great projects that are coming up in the near future, that are going to give Golden Boy the ability to take it to another level."
