"It's going to be very, very difficult for Golden Boy to keep the credibility of the brand without Richard Schaefer," stated unified WBA & IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins, who shared his thoughts on the recent news that former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has resigned from the position. Hopkins, who is a partner in the company, made it clear that he's uncertain about who he'll be working with when it comes to his future bouts.
"A guy like Richard and let me say that we don't always agree on everything really can't be replaced. I'll reiterate: Richard Schaefer cannot be replaced. Things will continue to be run (at GBP), but they won't can't be the same. Richard is a man who is stern when he needs to be stern, and fair when he needs to be fair. It's hard to find people like that in boxing. He's one of the biggest and most respected players there is. Even the people who don't care for him too much on a personal level have got to respect him when it comes to the way he does his job," Hopkins stated in an interview with Bernard Fernandez of thesweetscienc.com.
"Think about it. Who really ran Golden Boy? I'm not talking about popping up in the office once or twice a year. Who was there, doing the deals, on a day-to-day basis," he continued. ""Oscar's been talking to certain people [Bob Arum]. He's been tweeting. He showed up at Canelo's (Alvarez) camp. OK, he's rededicated, he's gotten himself together, he's burying the hatchet (with Arum). Great. But with him doing all that, is anybody really surprised that this thing with Richard happened? The only thing that's a shock is that it took this long to go down."
The biggest revelation from Hopkins, however, is that he too could be joining Richard Schaefer in his departure from the company. "I'm not under contract to Golden Boy," he explained. "No one has asked me to come here or to stay there. I got my own team, a separate team. When all is said and done, I'm going to evaluate everything and decide to do what's best for Bernard Hopkins. I'm going to try to be fair to everybody, but I got to look out for me first. It's crucial for me to make the right move, whether it's with Richard or with Oscar. I worked too hard to get here to do anything else."
"No matter what, though, what's going on now between them won't affect me from getting in the ring and winning another title. I want to continue to unify the light heavyweight division, and with two titles I'm in better position to do that now, regardless of the shakeup. I could even promote my next fight myself. It won't be an emotional decision. I'm going to align myself with the best, with the smartest, and with whoever can do the most for me at this stage of my career," he added. "I don't have a contract with Al Haymon, but I wouldn't mind having one because he knows the business and he knows how to make the moves to get you where you need to be."
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