How promoter Richard Schaefer would change Olympic boxing
RIO DE JANEIRO — Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya have had extraordinary success together in the past, even though they more than occasionally did not see eye-to-eye.
De La Hoya, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist, now is CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, a company that Schaefer, his former manager, helped him found and run.
They had a bitter split in 2015 and Schaefer has founded his own boxing promotional company, Ringstar Sports, which he is in the process of launching.
And now they’re having a very public difference of opinion.
De La Hoya told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday in a story about the 24th anniversary of his medal in Barcelona, Spain, that the only fighters he is interested in signing to pro contracts are gold medal winners.
“I reminded myself I was ready for this, I believed in how hard I had worked, and I convinced myself this was my time to shine,” De La Hoya told Times reporter Lance Pugmire. “You can’t be too confident, tense or tight. You have to be perfect.
“That’s why winning an Olympic gold medal is so difficult, why not many can achieve it. But if everything is aligned, go into the ring and take care of business.”
Schaefer sees things differently. While the one-time Golden Boy CEO respects any fighter talented enough to win a gold, he pointed out Thursday to Yahoo Sports that more gold medalists have failed to succeed in the pros than have become big stars.
He pointed to Andre Ward, the 2004 Olympic light heavyweight gold medalist in Athens, as an example.
“That gold medal hasn’t really done much for Andre Ward,” Schaefer said. “He’s a good fighter, but have you seen him in these huge fights that everyone is talking about where the arena is full and the press comes from all over to report on it?”
Ward may have one of those fights in November, when he faces Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas in an HBO Pay-Per-View bout.
But Ward has spent his professional career taking a back seat to non-gold medal winners like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez, among others.
Schaefer said he was impressed with American light flyweight Nico Hernandez, who won a bronze medal but was eliminated Friday by Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov in the semifinals; and Carlos Balderas, a lightweight who fell in the quarterfinals to top-seeded Cuban Lazaro Alvarez.
“If I were signing someone, I’d rather have Balderas than that Cuban, even if he goes on to win the gold medal,” Schaefer said. “Balderas is a very good-looking kid and he has an exciting style that will work in the pros. And he speaks well and people like him and I think that’s the kind of guy you can market and promote, inside and outside of the ring.”
Schaefer has been critical of NBC’s boxing coverage. Despite the U.S. team’s hot start, in which it jumped out to a 6-1 record and guaranteed itself its first medal since Beijing in 2008, boxing hasn’t been a priority on the network.
Schaefer said he felt that wasn’t fair and said if NBC isn’t planning to show more boxing in 2020 in Tokyo, it should sell the broadcast rights to someone who would give it better play.
“Every time I turn on the TV, everything I see is swimming and those gymnasts, and once in a while soccer,” he said. “That’s OK, but not everybody is into swimming. I understand Michael Phelps and everything, but there is more to the Olympics than one athlete or one or two events.
“If they don’t want to showcase boxing, don’t tie up the rights. Sell them to someone who is passionate about it and knows what to do with the rights. We keep hearing about how nobody cares about the amateur boxing in the U.S., but if we don’t put the fights on TV and market it so people can see it, what do you expect?”
NBC, of course, would argue that the ratings for swimming and gymnastics are off the charts huge and that it is in the business of showing what the majority of its viewers want.
Boxing ratings are down on television this year, but Schaefer is hardly down on the sport. He pointed out the large number of boxing writers who are writing and tweeting about the Olympics, and that there is outrage from the sport’s hardcore fans over the lack of boxing in NBC.
“There is absolutely a market for it, but you have to commit to it and you have to make sure the [audience] knows who the fighters are,” Schaefer said. “But I’m serious. I’m going to talk to some people when this is all over. If NBC wants to have this attitude again, that is fine. There are people out there with the interest and the resources and the knowledge who would take those rights and do something good with them.
