Advertisement

Richard Schaefer creates Ringstar Sports, back in promotional business

Richard Schaefer creates Ringstar Sports, back in promotional business

After an 18-month absence, Richard Schaefer is back in the business of promoting boxing.

The former Golden Boy CEO, who bitterly split with the company in January 2015, created a company he called Ringstar Sports and is in the process of building a staff and seeking out fighters.

A prominent Swiss banker, Schaefer joined forces with Oscar De La Hoya in 2000 to build Golden Boy Promotions. He eventually became the CEO of the company and led it to become one of the major players in the business.

He parted ways with Golden Boy last year and, as part of a confidential settlement that ended a lawsuit between the sides, he remained out of boxing for 18 months before starting Ringstar.

"I am very excited to be back in the ranks of boxing promotion," Schaefer told Yahoo Sports. "My first job was to establish the entity and get licensed, which I've done. Now, I'll be reactivating my relationships within the boxing industry whether it's managers, fighters, networks and so on. I want to recruit staff. I want to put together the best team again. I want to get the best matchmakers and operational people and marketing people and so on. I'm going to do things the right way.

"I'm going to have some conversations with the networks, so I have the right platforms available. After I sign some fighters, whether it be young guys coming out of the Olympics or seasoned, existing stars and champions, as long as they are free agents, I will be open for business and able to offer them the right opportunities."

Schaefer has no staff or fighters currently under contract. He said not only is he open to working once again with Al Haymon, the powerful boxing manager who created the Premier Boxing Champions, but he expects to have substantive talks with him soon.

But Schaefer said he is going to cast as wide of a net as possible. While at Golden Boy, he famously battled with Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, and vowed he'd never do business with him again. On Thursday, though, Schaefer seemed to soften his stance even toward Arum.

The so-called "Cold War" between Golden Boy and Top Rank that ran in the earlier part of this decade prevented many significant fights from occurring.

"I was sitting in the yard the other day reflecting upon all of my experiences in boxing," Schaefer said. "And as nasty as it got at times between Bob and me, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that I have a lot of fond memories of good times with Bob. We were out smoking cigars, having a lot of laughs and there were good old memories. I don't want to say anything bad about Bob and who knows? Maybe we'll work together again."

Though boxing ratings on TV are down, Schaefer said it doesn't concern him and that he believes the market for the sport remains strong.

He said he hopes to be able to promote some of Haymon's PBC shows as well as cards of his own he puts together.