Golden Boy Promotions

Current company Logo

De La Hoya with the DeWalt Home Depot Marketing Team at the Fight Night Club event in June 2010.

Golden Boy Promotions, Inc. is a combat sport promotional firm started by former boxer six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya (whose nickname is The Golden Boy). De La Hoya owns a majority interest in the firm, and his partners in the venture include fellow boxers Bernard Hopkins, Joseph Ochoa, and Ricky Hatton among others.

Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions was established in 2001 by Oscar De La Hoya, the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. In 2006, their fifth year of promoting, Golden Boy Promotions broke a record by selling over 2 million in pay-per-views. Golden Boy Promotions is also one of boxing's most active and respected promoters, presenting shows in packed venues around the United States on networks such as HBO, HBO Latino, Showtime, Telefutura, and ESPN. They present the monthly boxing series Fight Night Club sponsored by DeWalt Tools, in association with AEG. It is held at the Club Nokia in Los Angeles and televised live on Fox Sports Net and others. Golden Boy Promotions also co promotes fight cards with other boxing promoters/companies i.e. Bob Arum's Top Rank, Main Events, Gary Shaw Productions, Lou Dibella, Murad Mohammad, etc. Golden Boy Enterprises has a diverse portfolio of investments including ownership in several Spanish-language newspapers in major markets throughout the U.S., and select investments in a number of consumer products. The company continues to seek additional business investments and opportunities that fit with its mission. Golden Boy Enterprises also holds a majority interest in Golden Boy Promotions. The company holds a 25% interest in the Houston Dynamo soccer team.

Key people

Name	Position	Notes
Oscar De La Hoya	Founder
Richard Schaefer	CEO
Eric Gomez	Matchmaker
Bruce Binkow	CMO
Jeremy Hicks	Head Accountant
Bernard Hopkins	Managing Partner (East Coast)
Winky Wright	Managing Partner (South)
Ricky Hatton	Managing Partner (UK)

Current Fighters

Name	Weight Class	Nationality	Notes
Abner Mares	Bantamweight	Mexican	IBF Bantamweight Champion
Eric Morel	Bantamweight	Puerto Rican
Charles Huerta	Super Bantamweight	American
Nestor Rocha	Super Bantamweight	Mexican
Juan Velasquez	Super Bantamweight	Puerto Rican
Manuel Avila	Featherweight	American
Randy Caballero	Featherweight	American
Daniel Ponce De Leon	Featherweight	Mexican
Antonio Escalante	Featherweight	Mexican
Jhonny Gonzalez	Featherweight	Mexican	WBC Featherweight Champion
Chris John	Featherweight	Indonesian	WBA Featherweight "Super" Champion
Ronny Rios	Featherweight	American
Israel Vasquez	Featherweight	Mexican
Carlos Velasquez	Featherweight	Puerto Rican
Derrick Wilson	Featherweight	American
Rocky Juarez	Super Featherweight	American
Jorge Linares	Super Featherweight	Venezuelan
Eloy Perez	Super Featherweight	American
Juan Manuel Marquez	Lightweight	Mexican	Ring Magazine/WBO/WBA Lightweight "Super" Champion
Pablo Cesar Cano	Lightweight	Mexican
Juan Díaz	Lightweight	American
Robert Guerrero	Lightweight	American
Vicente Escobedo	Lightweight	American
Eduardo Alicea	Lightweight	American
Jorge Barrios	Lightweight	Argentine
Sharif Bogere	Lightweight	Ugandan
Adrien Bogere	Lightweight	American
Omar Figueroa	Lightweight	American
Fidel Maldonado	Lightweight	American
Mike Perez	Lightweight	American
Luis Ramos, Jr.	Lightweight	American
David Rodela	Lightweight	American
Hylon Williams	Lightweight	American
Joel Casamayor	Light Welterweight	Cuban
Danny Garcia	Light Welterweight	American
Ricky Hatton	Light Welterweight	English
Frankie Gomez	Light Welterweight	American
Rock Allen	Light Welterweight	American
Nate Campbell	Light Welterweight	American
Michael Finney	Light Welterweight	American
Jamie Kavanagh	Light Welterweight	Irish
Amir Khan	Light Welterweight	English
Marcos Maidana	Light Welterweight	Argentine	WBA Regular Light Welterweight Champion
Lucas Matthysse	Light Welterweight	Argentine
Carlos Molina	Light Welterweight	American
Vivian Harris	Light Welterweight	Guyanese
Eddie Gomez	Welterweight	American
Victor Ortiz	Welterweight	American
Luis Grajeda	Welterweight	Mexican
Paulie Malignaggi	Welterweight	American
Mikaël Zewski	Welterweight	Canadian
Saul Alvarez	Super Welterweight	Mexican	WBC Super Welterweight Champion
Alfredo Angulo	Super Welterweight	Mexican
Erislandy Lara	Super Welterweight	Cuban
Jermell Charlo	Super Welterweight	American
James Kirkland	Super Welterweight	American
Alfonso Blanco	Middleweight	Venezuelan
Craig McEwan	Middleweight	Scottish
Sergio Mora	Middleweight	American
Bastie Samir	Middleweight	Ghanian
Ronald Wright	Middleweight	American
Daniel Jacobs	Super Middleweight	American
Librado Andrade	Super Middleweight	Mexican
Enrique Ornelas	Super Middleweight	Mexican
Marco Antonio Periban	Super Middleweight	Mexican
Bernard Hopkins	Light Heavyweight	American	Ring Magazine/WBC/IBO Light Heavyweight Champion
Trevor McCumby	Light Heavyweight	American
Seth Mitchell	Heavyweight	American
Deontay Wilder	Heavyweight	American
David Haye	Heavyweight	English	in assossciations with Haye Promotions

Promoting the biggest boxing match in history

Golden Boy promoted the May 5, 2007, "super fight" between De La Hoya and still undefeated Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather won the bout by a split decision. The fight appears to have been one of the most lucrative in the history of the sport. They also co-promoted along with Top Rank, The Dream Match: Oscar De La Hoya Vs Manny Pacquiao on December 6, 2008.

Mixed Martial Arts promotion with Affliction

Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Clothing started a mixed martial arts promotion that has been extremely aggressive in pursuing free agents. It has been rumored that their new promotion has already worked out deals with Aleksander Emelianenko, Vitor Belfort, Matt Lindland, and Gilbert Yvel, as well as pursuing Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Renato Sobral, and Fedor Emelianenko, and a tv deal with HBO.

However, the promotion would fold before airing its third PPV event, "Affliction: Trilogy" - a steroid scandal and being unable to find replacement fighters would lead to the eventual cancellation of the event.

Projects

In 2005, Golden Boy Enterprises announced the formation of Golden Boy Partners, a company focused on urban development in Latino communities.

In June 2009, Golden Boy Enterprises became embroiled in a dispute over who would fight for the WBA junior welterweight title. On the one hand, undefeated Dmitry Salita (the WBA's No. 1-ranked 140-pounder) was told by the WBA in writing that he will face the winner of the June 27 fight between titleholder Andreas Kotelnik and Amir Khan. On the other hand, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy said that he had it "in writing" that that fight would face the winner of the Victor Ortíz-Marcos Maidana fight.[1] The WBA's top executives were unavailable for comment. Salita was extremely upset over the prospect that he could lose what would be his first title shot. "They’re a big company", he said of Golden Boy. "They’re trying to bend the rules. They’re trying to kick everyone to the side and get their way, rules or no rules. When Oscar De La Hoya formed Golden Boy, he said he wanted to change boxing, to bring honor to the sport. This isn’t the honorable thing to do. This isn’t good for boxing. This isn’t justice. This goes against the right to pursue happiness, which is why my family immigrated to this country (from Ukraine) and why I’ve worked so hard. We’ll see what happens."[2] Salita ended up fighting Khan, losing by 1st round TKO.

External links

• Golden Boy Promotions