By CARLOS ARIAS
LOS ANGELES --- There has been a lot of talk about the internal problems between Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer.
A big part of the problem is De La Hoya's desire to co-promote major events with Top Rank Promotions and Bob Arum and Schaefer's unwillingness to work at all with Arum. De La Hoya and Schaefer shook hands and sat together for Floyd Mayweather's victory over Marcos Maidana this past weekend in Las Vegas.
"Of course, we're going to work things out," De La Hoya said at Tuesday's news conference to hype Saul "Canelo" Alavez's fight against Erislandy Lara. "Things are being worked out. That's it."
De La Hoya, who will be leading the Canelo-Lara press tour, said he will be handling more of the day-to-day operations of his company.
"This is my company," De La Hoya said. "This is my company, you know? I'm here.
"Listen, I won 10 world titles in six different weight classes, gold medal, a life of luxury, a life with everything, you know, stuff ... I don't know how I made it. I don't know how I did it. It was just all a blur. Now, after I retired, I had this knockdown in my life. I had a knockdown in my life and I was down on the canvas. I was down and I could have stayed down. I could have just stayed there and nobody will ever hear me again. But I decided to get back up. I'm going to get back up and lift my hand in victory. That's what I'm going to do. What I always intended to do right from the beginning was to help the sport that helped me."
Golden Boy and Top Rank haven't co-promoted a major fight in five years. De La Hoya believes he can end the cold war with Arum and make fights that the people want to see even if Schaefer doesn't want to.
"I believe that I can get that accomplished," said De La Hoya, who had lunch with Arum last week. "I'm the owner of the company. I can get that done, 100 percent."
De La Hoya said he should have patched things up with Arum years ago.
"I have no personal issue with Bob Arum anymore," De La Hoya said. "I did before which was very wrong of me. But now I went to his house. He has this beautiful home, you know, that I probably helped him build. We had some chicken and it was nice. We remembered old times together. I just wanted to tell him thank you for what he did for my career. Now that we have buried the hatchet, and we didn't talk no business whatsoever, but who knows, maybe the next meeting or the following meeting after that we can talk business. Why not for the betterment of the sport, for the betterment of the fans to make these fights for the fans?"
Now that De La Hoya plans to handle more of the day-to-day operations of his company will he be the point man during the negotiations for a potential Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Manny Pacquiao fight?
"I will be right there involved in everything, OK," De La Hoya said. "That's why we have a staff. That's why we have a family of people who work with us. We have COOs, we have CFOs, we have CEOs and then we have the owner. I will be right there involved in everything."
Could Golden Boy Promotions move forward without Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer's involvement?
"Right now, as we speak, we're just working things out," De La Hoya said. "That's it. I haven't even thought about that. That hasn't even crossed my mind. Seriously, that has not crossed my mind. But to answer your question quickly, anything is possible. Like I said, I'm here and Golden Boy Promotions will be bigger and better than ever regardless of what happens."
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