EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: THE GOLDEN CEO
By G. Leon

GL: Congrats on a great event last Saturday night, can you give us some thoughts on Oscar's performance? "I think it was a terrific performance from Oscar and I think it was a gutsy performance from Steve Forbes as well. Oscar silenced all of the critics who said he can only fight for six rounds. In the twelfth round he looked better than he did in the first round. He was on his toes, throwing jabs, uppercuts and everything was coming out smoothly. He turned back the clock and I'm very happy about that."

GL: I heard might have suffered an injury. Is he 100% and will he fight in September?

Richard Schaeffer: "He's 100% and he will again on September 20."

GL: Against Floyd Mayweather Jr?

RS: "I'm actually going to be talking later on with Floyd's team and advisors and we will be finalizing everything this week."

GL: Based on Oscar's peformance agaisnt Forbes, do you think he'll even the score with Mayweather?

RS: "If you think about the last fight, it was a split decision and the difference was one point. Many boxing writers and media members felt that Oscar won the fight. If you think why he lost, he lost because he pull through in the second half like he did in the first half. He really showed the world with his performance this past Saturday, with Mayweather Sr in his corner, he turned in an outstanding performance. I think if he can do that against Floyd, I think there will be no question who will be the winner, it will be Oscar."

GL: The next big Golden Boy event is May 31 Sugar Shane against Zab Judah. Tell us about that event as well as the undercard bouts.

RS: "On the undercard we have announced Barrios-Juarez. High Stakes is the name of the show. High Stakes for that fight, but even higher with Zab Judah and Shane Mosley. It's a must win situation for each guy. I think it's going to be very exciting. Toe-to-toe action from the top to bottom of this card. Jeff Lacy will be on this card as well and it's another must win situation for Jeff. It's a lot of meaningful fights and action packed fights with guys going toe-to-toe. And that has become the hallmark of Golden Boy fights, you know you're going to have a lot of action packed fights."

GL: Golden Boy controls much of the lightweight division, You guys have Joel Casamayor, Michael Katsidis, Juan Diaz, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera, what's next for those guys starting with Casamayor?

RS: "We made an offer to Casamayor and his team to fight on September 13 live on HBO against Juan Diaz in Houston, Texas and we are basically waiting and seeing if Joel is going to accept that offer. I have reached out to Don King as well, and I talked to Don last week and told him that Juan Manuel Marquez has indicated to me that would fight Nate Campbell. We have told King that we are willing to split everything 50-50 on a co-promotion. So let's see if Campbell is only good at giving interviews, or if he really is going to fight somebody of the caliber of a Juan Manuel Marquez. The ball is in their court and I'm hoping to hear back from King. I've had discussions with HBO already and once we can do the fight, we can hopefully firm everything up for a PPV this fall. If Nate Campbell feels like he doesn't want to wait around until then, that's okay, he can go and fight somebody of lesser quality. The fact is Juan Manuel Marquez is ready, willing and able to fight anybody."

GL: And Michael Katsidis?

RS: "We're hoping to have him back in action on September 13 against Jesus "El Matador" Chavez. All of these things are being worked on, so we'll see. A lot offers have been made and we have to see who wants to fight."

GL: When will Winky Wright fight next?

RS: "We are currently talking with HBO for a date for Winky to fight. Winky is a fighter who would fight anyone. We've talked to Arum about Pavlik and you know better than anybody that if you say the Winky word to Arum you don't get a pleasant response. You know that Greg, I've read your interviews. That didn't work. We are willing and able to fight Calzaghe, but he's not interested. The same goes for Abraham who chose to fight Miranda and we have reached out to Sturm as well. You can only sum it up by saying Winky is too good for his own good. He was also willing to fight Jermain Taylor, a fight everybody would be interested in seeing, but Winky isn't turning down any offers. I did get today, an email from the people who have the German 154 pound champion and they expressed interest in fighting Winky."

GL: I work with an IBF junior middleweight champion named Verno Phillips who would love to fight Winky as well.

RS: "That's right, and now we have to basically discuss with HBO the opponent and date to put his next fight together, and that will take place some time later on this year."

GL: Do you think Bernard Hopkins is really retired?

RS: "I'm still holding his cane, so based on that who knows? All kidding aside, I think Bernard Hopkins has had such an amazing career. Every fight he's done has been very much thought out, I think the last chapter of Bernard's legendary career is almost finished. I think that if the right fight comes along, he might look at it. I think with what he has achieved he can be satisfied looking at his career. In Los Angeles last weekend, going into the fight and leaving the arena, Bernard was receiving a lot of love from the fans. He really is the definition of legend."

GL: Closing thoughts?

RS: "It's pretty exciting times to be a boxing fan. It's also pretty exciting to be a Boxingtalk.com fan."

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