By Rick Reeno
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is looking forward to a long business relationship with Puerto Rico Best Boxing, run by brothers Peter and Ivan Rivera.
For years, PRBBP has staged events, on a near exclusive level (in terms of American promoters), with Golden Boy's main competitor, Las Vegas based Top Rank.
On March 15th, Golden Boy and PRBBP will come together for the first time, when they stage a Showtime televised tripleheader from the Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
The main event will feature Danny Garcia defending his WBC/WBA 140-pound titles against Mauricio Herrera. The other finalized bouts include heavyweight Deontay Wilder taking on Malik Scott, and a battle of super featherweights between Juan Manuel Lopez and Daniel Ponce De Leon.
For the last decade, nearly every champion to come out of Puerto Rico has been groomed by Puerto Rico Best Boxing in association with Top Rank. As Top Rank begins to stage more shows with PRBBP's competitors, like Miguel Cotto Promotions, the Rivera brothers have begun to branch out to start working relationships with other companies.
"Yes, we are working with Puerto Rico's Best and Peter. Peter has been involved in the careers of most, if not all, of the top fighters to come out Puerto Rico in the last decade. He knows his business and he's a pro. I'm very thrilled to be working with Peter and his team," Schaefer told BoxingScene.com.
"My understanding is they are no longer working with Top Rank. That relationship has fallen apart, so we'll be working with them. We are going to be doing other things with them. You start somewhere and get to know each other. I met with Peter. He is a very smart businessman and a straight shooter, and a man you can trust and I like to deal with people like that. I look forward to doing other things with him and his team, but this event here is starting the relationship with a bang. And yes there are plans to do other things together, absolutely."
Schaefer says his company has been contacted by other overseas promoters who want to do business with them, including promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions, who also deals with Top Rank on a near exclusive level in terms of the United States.
"That's how it goes. There are other people who are talking to us and want to do business with us, like Beltran who reached out to us from Mexico. So we'll see," Schaefer said.