Could Richard Schaefer be collateral damage in the Cold War?

By Robbie Bannatyne - 05/23/2014 - Comments

schaefer2By Robbie Bannatyne: There has much been speculation recently about the internal conflict within Golden Boy Promotions, said to be the result of fissures in the relationship between Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer. At the same time, rumours also abound that De La Hoya has made attempts to bury the hatchet with Bob Arum by going to meet the Top Rank boss at his house recently.

Regardless of whether Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya make peace and decide to re-establish a working relationship, the issue between the feuding television networks Showtime and HBO is still not resolved. Still, if De La Hoya and Bob Arum could recapture the bond that was broken throughout their conflict it would certainly be a step in the right direction.

However, Golden Boy’s CEO Richard Schaefer’s appears to the major stumbling block as he has stated repeatedly that he will not do business with Bob Arum.

Schaefer does not seem to care that the Cold War is having a damaging impact on the sport, making it prohibitive to put on great fights for the fans. In fact, he actively encourages the divisive conflict and probably would love nothing more than to bury Bob Arum’s Top Rank in a crudely rendered coffin, on an unmarked grave.

‘I met with Bob Arum to bury the hatchet,’ De La Hoya said. ‘There is a lot of great fights that can be made.’

The only place Richard Schaefer wants to bury the hatchet, though, is in Bob Arum’s back.

Richard Schaefer has repeatedly stated that he would not even entertain the thought of working with Bob Arum, far less actually establish an effective and meaningful dialogue to end the feud that has deprived the fans of fights they really want to see. It seems Richard Schaefer’s purpose of putting on major boxing events and world championship prizefights plays subordinate to his passion of trying to destroy Top Rank. On the contrary, the stubbornness and greed of Bob Arum is just as much to blame for the Cold War as Schaefer’s bitterness toward the Top Rank boss. But it appears Bob Arum wants to usher the water under the bridge, whereas Schaefer wants to take Top Rank into even deeper water so he can drown Arum’s promotional company.

Thankfully, Golden Boy Promotions is not Schaefer’s company. De La Hoya should call his bluff and start working with Bob Arum regardless of Schaefer objections. After all, there are many more bright business minds out there who could take over the mantle as GBP CEO from Schaefer. The loss of a Swiss Banker to boxing would hardly be an earth shattering event, would it? Not many boxing fans would mourn his loss. But De La Hoya’s bank balance may be weeping as he would probably have to dip into his $200 million personal fortune to buy out the remainder of Schaefer’s contract, which is rumored to run through to 2017- although this has not been confirmed.

If De La Hoya and Schaefer do repair their relationship, and he continues to work for Golden Boy Promotions, then he must learn to put aside his personal animus towards Bob Arum in order to protect the health of boxing.

Yet Schaefer seems to have world domination in mind. The former banker smells blood and wants to go in for the kill where Bob Arum’s Top Rank is concerned.

Although if Oscar De La Hoya drops the bombshell on Schaefer that he is going to rekindle his relationship with Bob Arum, then it could be Schaefer who ends up being the collateral damage of the ‘Cold War’. If this was the case, then the end would certainly justify the means by my estimation.

Thanks for Reading. I look forward to reading your comments.

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