2014 wasn't the best year for boxing as many fights that fans wanted weren't made. In comparison to 2013, it was a downgrade. It was also a tough year for Golden Boy Promotions as it saw its all-star roster of fighters depleted as they made the move to Al Haymon's Premiere Boxing Champions. Regardless of how you look at the situation, it was a tough loss for Oscar De La Hoya's promotional company, which celebrated its 13th year in business in 2015.
After Richard Schaefer stepped down as CEO of the company last year, Oscar took back the reigns and has now taken full control of the direction of his company. While talking to De La Hoya recently, he refused to call this a rebuilding stage, but rather a step in a new direction. Up until now, De La Hoya has appeared to be manning this ship on his own, but partner and active fighter Bernard Hopkins is now becoming more involved in reestablishing Golden Boy.
In a recent interview with FightHype, Hopkins expressed his willingness to dedicate more time to the promotional company he became a part of in 2004. While his physical participation in boxing may be soon coming to an end, the business side with Golden Boy will soon take full precedence.
"Outside of boxing, with Golden Boy Promotions, as you know, I've been in this business for over 10 years and growing stronger. You know there's a little bump here and a little bump there, but you don't expect it, but what company or any entity don't go through a transition? For good or bad. But I will say one thing and that is soon, very soon, I will be 100% committed without having training camps and without being away from the family. Or to get ready to go to battle again physically. I can really, really look forward to having the time just to dedicate it to boxing and other personal things, but not actually getting ready for a major fight," Bernard would tell FightHype.
"Now am I saying I'm retired as of right now? No. Do I want to get a significant fight that matters and means something before the year's out? Yes. But I'm so at peace with myself and I do have the mindset, energy, and power to be able to transition to who I've been for all these years".
It's an uphill battle for Golden Boy as fighters they helped establish are now gone and they are building their stable again and trying to retain fighters whose contracts are still valid. Their biggest star is Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, but they understand they need to build new stars and that has been their primary focus as of late.
De La Hoya brought back their popular Fight Club series, now called LA Fight Club, which is a platform to farm new talent and bring them up the ranks. Their Fox Sports 1 fight cards are also a vehicle to keep their fighters active and developing, while still providing a stage for more established stars. Hopkins explains Golden Boy is not going anywhere.
"What people can expect from Golden Boy Promotions is quality fights. Fights that matter. Even in coming up the ranks of the young fighters that's coming up to become season veterans. And they get a chance to grow and they get the chance to fight often on networks to build popularity and also build their status amongst fans. They get a chance to see that, whether it's on the west coast or east coast. Golden Boy Promotions, Golden Boy Boxing is around for a long, long time. And I'm here, glad to be a part of it. I'm here, glad to contribute to it. In and out of the ring I've done that and I want to continue that," stated Hopkins.
In the past, association with Oscar De La Hoya was a good selling point for fighters looking for a promoter. They could easily identify with De La Hoya as even 7 years into retirement, Oscar is still one of the most recognizable fighters to the public. It'll be interesting to see if Bernard can attract talent from that angle. He is well respected in the sport and may have a hand in persuading boxers to join their team.
Golden Boy's biggest obstacle, however, is dealing with the competition, and more specifically, Al Haymon, who has made some strong and big moves by bringing boxing back to network television. Haymon's stable is over 170 fighters deep and is gobbling up dates left and right, which is leading to a lot of head to head broadcasts and challenges for other promoters; Golden Boy included.
But Bernard is confident Golden Boy is still capable of putting on fights the fans wants to see and be one of the major players in the sport.
"We're here to set a presence that you might get knocked down, you might get knocked out, but you live to fight another day. We're at that day, so let's go. Fox Sports 1 in Fantasy Springs, we're going to put it on and there's just more to come after that. And that's the test; that's the test we got. For a while, we can talk about that past and yeah, it's a good soap opera, but after a while, it's like, what y'all doing? What did you do lately? What you doing now? It's just like a loss. You know how many times I could've sat back and said, 'I won the Jermaine Taylor first fight,' or 'I won the Joe Calzaghe fight'. They could've went either way, right? Did that stop Bernard Hopkins? De La Hoya's the same way. Did that stop De La Hoya? I believe he beat Trinidad; matter fact, I watched the tape and it gave me the blueprint on how to beat him and that was to stay away from the left hook," said Hopkins.
"So you make adjustments, man. You make adjustments in the ring, you make adjustments in life. You make adjustments as a business. CEO of the company, we make those adjustments. And all we can tell the fans, the critics, and even the haters: Just watch. And y'all motivation, whether good or bad, will be our success."
Golden Boy is definitely making its adjustments at the moment and we'll see if Hopkins' full participation will strengthen and speed up the process. They have two significant fights coming up in Saul Alvarez versus James Kirkland in Houston, TX May 9th and the highly anticipated Lucas Matthysse versus Ruslan Provodnikov bout, which is already being predicted to be a possible Fight of the Year candidate.
They are working with other promoters to put on good matchups and they plan to continue doing that as Hopkins urges others to do the same.
"Judge us by what we put on y'all TV, not by what people say and people write. I think that's very important. That they look at the fights and compare the fights. And you know what? For everyone to step their game up. Be about putting the best fights that matter. That helps not only boxing, but also helps your team and company. What you saying that you are, let's prove it. And I'm saying that to call out not only Golden Boy, that's a call out to everybody. Give the fans what they want. If you got a belt, fight and unify it. Let's stop this nonsense. Let's stop these kid games and get down to real business and bring boxing back to the forefront in mainstream," said Hopkins.
2014 may have served as a placeholder in boxing, but the quality of match ups has soared since the beginning of the year. While most might deem Golden Boy to be down, they assure they are not out and will be a big part of making big fights in 2015.
[ Follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @Truewest007 ]