Schaefer: Broner still has a long-term contract with Golden Boy

By Boxing News - 03/18/2013 - Comments

broner54By Allan Fox: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer reportedly isn’t pleased with the news that Curtis Jackson aka “50 Cent”, is interested in signing WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner (26-0, 22 KO’s) to his SMS Promotions stable.

There had been previous talk about the 23-year-old Broner’s contract with Golden Boy expiring next month in April, but Scaefer is saying that’s not that case. He says Broner is still under a long-term contract with Golden Boy and Al Haymon, his adviser.

Schaefer said to Yahoo Sports News “Adrien has a long-term contract with Al Haymon, and a long-term contract with us…we have put 50 Cent on notice [that] any further involvement or any further poaching attempts by 50 Cent and he’ll end up in a lawsuit.”

The reason this is important is because Broner is still saying he’s “Mr. HBO,” and he prefers that network to Showtime for his fights. On Monday, HBO announced that they were cutting ties with Golden Boy Promotions, and were no longer going to purchase fights from them to televise on HBO. Broner has done well with HBO, and brought in huge ratings in his recent fights.

He’s clearly becoming more and more popular with each fight on HBO. But by now being stuck with only being able to fight on Showtime, which has a lower subscription rate than HBO, Broner will be seen by fewer boxing fans.

Schaefer doesn’t see this as a problem because he feels in time that with the addition of Golden Boy Promotions’ fighters, Showtime will eventually catch up to Showtime.

That’s possible in theory, but not likely. HBO is the better known company in the minds of a lot of fans, and when people subscribe to a premium channel, HBO is frequently their first choice rather than Showtime. I don’t believe that’s going to change with casual boxing fans. Not a lot of casual fans have both Showtime and HBO, so it means that Broner’s fights are likely going to be seen by fewer boxing fans for as long as his fights are shown on Showtime.

It may not matter if he’s still getting a lot of money, but if his goal is to be seen by as many boxing fans as possible, then he probably is better off with his fights being televised by HBO.



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