Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer takes counter shots at Bob Arum

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer spoke with Robert Morales about the recent comments by Top Rank's Bob Arum, and he was none too pleased.

Schaefer called Arum "jealous" of Golden Boy's current status, and noted the fact that they are just a five year-old company, compared to Arum's "hundreds" of years in the industry.

"I read every line and I could just read the jealousy coming from his lips. The fact is we are very happy with out stable of fighters. And we are happy on how as soon as a fighter is a free agent, they want to come to Golden Boy. I'm happy for that. I'm happy that we are trying to give fighters what they want, which is big fights. I couldn't be more pleased with what we have at Golden Boy."

About Golden Boy prospect Victor Ortiz, whom Arum (and many others) have been calling a quitter:

"I certainly don't see Victor as a quitter. I see him as a great young man who has had a really hard life. And to have some 8,600 fans scream his name in what was a great back-and-forth fight... in the end, he came up short. ... I think Bob Arum should apologize to Victor."

He also noted that if Arum thinks so little of Ortiz, he should give up the financial interest he has in the fighter, who signed with Golden Boy in a move that left Top Rank hanging after putting work into his development.

There's some spin here, especially in the case of Ortiz. There's no doubt about that. And I don't think anyone can argue that the biggest fight on the calendar is pure Top Rank: Pacquiao-Cotto on November 14, and that Top Rank right now has the more impressive stable and the better fighters. Schaefer and Oscar de la Hoya are still in some ways learning the ropes. Bob has been around forever, and he's back into the lead dog position right now.

Again, though, my main hope is that none of this leads to another "Cold War" between the two promotions, which was broken in late 2007 when Top Rank's Manny Pacquiao rematched Golden Boy's Marco Antonio Barrera. They have worked together on some big cards since then (de la Hoya-Pacquiao, Cotto-Mosley, Hatton-Paquiao, etc.) but this sort of back-and-forth just doesn't promise anything good. Schaefer's accusations jealousy probably do nothing more than fan the flames. Let's hope the fire doesn't really start kicking.