The former Swiss banker has been involved in a tussle with President Oscar De La Hoya over recent months, with a large part of the gripe involving the former fighter’s deciding to once again link up with Top Rank boss Bob Arum.
De La Hoya intends to put on Golden Boy-Top Rank co-promotions beginning this year, and ultimately Schaefer felt he could not be a part of that and has now released a statement to WBN confirming his decision.
“After more than 10 years with Golden Boy, it is time to move on to the next chapter of my career,” said Schaefer. “This decision has required a great deal of personal reflection, but ultimately I concluded that I have no choice but to leave. I have succeeded in banking and I have succeeded in boxing, and I look forward to the next opportunity.
“I am proud to remain a shareholder, so I have a strong interest in the continued success of the company. I am proud of what we have accomplished at Golden Boy, but I now look forward to new challenges.”
One of the key elements of Schaefer’s release is that he retains his stake in GBP, but it remains to be seen what impact this will have on the company going forward. Litigation on both sides is set to follow Schaefer’s announcement though as De La Hoya, speaking through his lawyer Bert Fields, was adamant that Schaefer was still tied to the company for the next three years.
“Golden Boy has a written contract with Richard Schaefer that ends March, 2018. The company intends to enforce that contract,” confirmed Fields.
The predictable split was closely followed by another blow for De La Hoya as Floyd Mayweather’s own CEO Leonard Ellerbe confirmed to ESPN that without Schaefer at the helm, there was no possibility that the pound for pound would again be willing to work with Golden Boy.
“Absolutely not,” said Ellerbe when asked if Mayweather would work with Golden Boy. “We have a great working relationship with Richard Schaefer and that will never change.
“Richard is a good friend and a great businessman and an excellent promoter. Richard will have an impact in anything that he decides to do, a tremendous impact. He built that company from the ground up and did a phenomenal job. We’ve had a very close relationship for a number of years and worked hand-in-hand on a number of great fights.
“Mayweather Promotions will continue to promote Floyd’s fights and Floyd will continue to put on the biggest fights in boxing. I have a tremendous team and staff and we continue to expand year by year and we’re ready to go.”
It now looks certain that Al Haymon will follow suit and pull his fighter’s from the Golden Boy roster, leading to even further talk that he, Schaefer and Mayweather will align to former a separate promotional super-power involving TMT.
With it being such early days since the split, it’s hard to gauge right now what this all means going forward, but De La Hoya hasn’t come out of this latest development in good shape and his next move is going to be closely monitored.
Golden Boy’s decision not to make an immediate comment when the story broke would lead most to believe that De La Hoya was unprepared for Schaefer and Mayweather’s decision to go public – as the boxing world wait with baited breath for his response.
Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay for tweets of upcoming news on WBN
