Golden Boy Chiefs Schaefer, DLH Speak on MMA
October 3, 2008
Michael David Smith of MMA Fanhouse recently attended the De La Hoya vs Pacquaio press day and he was able to speak with Oscar about Golden Boy’s motivations in its deal with Affliction:
“Opportunity,” De La Hoya said. “I think the opportunities are endless with mixed martial arts. The opportunity presented itself and it’s a business. We’re looking at it as a business, and under the Golden Boy umbrella, I think it fits in perfectly.”
Smith Also spoke with Golden Boy Chief Richard Schaefer and was able to gauge the interest GB has in MMA:
“It’s an interesting sport and an attractive opportunity for us,” Schaefer said of Golden Boy’s involvement in MMA. “We have an existing promotional team in place and we think that there are opportunities for our company to be involved in the sport of mixed martial arts. We believe as well, as we did in boxing, in the empowerment of athletes.”
Schaefer and De La Hoya’s comments were few but encouraging for their foray into the MMA field. Golden Boy have certainly been smart in limiting their exposure in their deal with Affliction, with GB leaving some of the high cost aspects like fighter payroll under the responsibility of Affliction. Such a set up protects GB’s bottom line and doesn’t entrench them into the sport to any great degree.
Schaefer also highlighted the main role the GB will play, an existing promotional team that is state of the art for the boxing field. It will be interesting to see if an assembly line that is optimized for one product can be adapted to another without too much loss in translation.
