By Radio Rahim
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is not concerned that his former business partner, Richard Schaefer, is back in the promotional mix.
Schaefer co-founded Golden Boy with De La Hoya and served as the company CEO for 14 years. He resigned from the company in June of 2014. Schaefer is often credited as being the backbone that helped Golden Boy become one of the largest boxing promotional companies in the world.
The two former best friends had a very turbulent falling out and a subsequent legal battle that was settled in January of 2015.
A few months ago Schaefer announced the formation of his new promotional company, Ringstar Sports, and quickly secured promotional licenses in New York, Las Vegas and California.
Schaefer promotes his first Ringstar event on December 10 at the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles. The Showtime televised card will feature a strong championship doubleheader with WBA featherweight champion Jesus Cuellar defending against Abner Mares and IBF middleweight champion Jermall Charlo taking on Julian Williams.
De La Hoya is keeping cool with the recent headlines. He doesn't view Schaefer's company - or any promotional company for that matter - as being competition for Golden Boy.
"I don't see no competition whatsoever for Golden Boy Promotions. We have the top fighter in the world today, and that's Canelo Alvarez, and we're building our stable stronger and better than ever with our LA Fights series, with fights like [Bernard Hopkins vs. Joe Smith]. So competition to me doesn't exist," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com.
"What I look at, is doing what we do best - and that's putting on the best fights possible to continue the sport of boxing so it can prosper, and we can promote the future and the present of boxing. But competition, I don't really see no competition because we're focused on giving fans what Golden Boy is used to doing and that's giving them the best fights.
"There is one thing that no other promoter has in the world - and that is Golden Boy. The fact that we're continuing to do what we do best, the fact that we have the number one star fighter in the world today, the fact that we're building several others - it's just a testament to our team effort, a testament to our hard work, discipline and dedication and following one rule - and that [rule] is to never forget what this company is called - and that's Golden Boy."
