Richard Schaefer launches new boxing promotion and media company, Probellum

Former Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer has officially announced the launch of Probellum, a new boxing promotion and media company for which Schaefer will serve as the company’s president. Probellum will attempt to leverage its relationships in several areas (including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, among others) to take a more global approach to the heavily splintered and fragmented sport.

One goal in particular that Schaefer mentioned is their ambitious plan to either promote, co-promote, or support over 100 events within the company’s first year in operation, with an overwhelming majority of those events to be staged outside of the United States.

Probellum will also look to leverage its digital platform to provide original content and associated programming around it as it builds its brand around the world. Obviously Schaefer will be looking for better fortune with this endeavor after returning from a forced hiatus (stemming from his fallout with Golden Boy) to found Ringstar Sports in 2016, which later merge into Hayemaker Ringstar the following year. Schaefer, however, insists this venture will be much different as he’s assembled a team of individuals whom he believes gives him both the know-how and access to capital to succeed.

“I really think this is an all-star team with access to capital, but also passionate and experienced in boxing,” said Schaefer, a former Swiss banker based in Los Angeles. “I think the oft-overused term ‘dream team’ is appropriate here. The strength of the team is going to give confidence to networks, confidence to sponsors and most notably, confidence to talent.”

Schaefer says Probellum’s focus of interest will start in Africa, which Schaefer says has been a market that’s been traditionally neglected despite showing promise with the rise in popularity in two MMA fighters in Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman.