Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, is usually a calm, cool and collected sort. The former Swiss banker doesn't get rattled easily.
Tuesday morning, however, he sounded rattled, expressing concern about why Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not signed his contract to face welterweight champ Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in as big of a fight as there is in the sport.
It has been five days since both sides acknowledged an agreement on terms.
Mosley, of course, put pen to paper on Friday in Las Vegas, where his attorney, Judd Burstein, went through the paperwork with him point by point.
"He is excited to move forward with the bout," Burstein told me at the time.
Burstein also added that he had been assured by Leonard Ellerbe, one of Mayweather's advisers, that there were no problems on their side.
"I confirmed with Leonard that there are no issues," Burstein said.
Ellerbe's quote to me for the story I wrote Friday was, "All of the deal points have been agreed to. We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to."
Yet five days later, Schaefer still does not have a signed agreement from Mayweather. He was clearly at wit's end when he called me about it Tuesday morning.
"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."
Schaefer said he is in constant touch with Ellerbe and Al Haymon, Mayweather's other adviser, and when he asks them where the paperwork is, the response is always the same: "Every day, it's the next day. They say, 'Don't worry, it's going to come.' Well, where is it? I'm waiting for the signature before we can move on."
Burstein said he and Mosley were also quite aggravated by the delay.
"I am outraged," Burstein said when I reached him Tuesday afternoon. "I have a client who acts in a professional manner. He allows me to negotiate a deal for him in constant consultation with him. When it all gets put on paper, we go over it and, as promised, he signs if it's OK. That's what happened on Friday. It was signed with the assurance from Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe that everything was agreed to and there was no problem."
So what does Burstein believe is the issue?
"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."
Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.
Schaefer wants to follow the same blueprint. He said Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who will meet April 3 in a pay-per-view rematch that Golden Boy is co-promoting, will be in Miami to help drum up interest in their fight, so he can't understand why Mayweather is MIA.
So I asked Schaefer if he was concerned that the Mosley-Mayweather fight might be in trouble?
His answer was simply, "Yes."
I asked him if he would elaborate.
"At this point, I don't know," he said. "We want to do some big PR, so this is frustrating. I read Leonard's quotes that it was agreed to and that it was just a matter of time to get it signed, but if it's all done, why isn't it signed?"
Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.
"I am not having flashbacks to anything, but [the Mosley fight] is still not signed," Schaefer said. "I don't know what it means. Obviously, we can't move forward with the promotion, including some important activities that were planned for this coming weekend, unless we have a signed deal."
Before negotiating with Mosley, Mayweather was close to a deal to face Manny Pacquiao on March 13 in what would have been, by far, the sport's biggest fight. But that fight fell apart shortly before what was supposed to have been a kickoff news conference in early January. The reason was because the fighters couldn't reach a compromise on drug-testing protocol. Mayweather insisted on testing that went far beyond the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Pacquiao accepted some additional testing, he refused random blood testing.
Both fighters moved on. Pacquiao quickly made a deal to defend his welterweight belt against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Mayweather and Mosley began their talks after Mosley's Jan. 30 unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled.
So while Pacquiao wrapped up his deal with Clottey in about two seconds and Mosley signed on the dotted line in pretty short order, we all continue to wait for Mayweather's John Hancock yet again, including Schaefer.
"I always tell you, a signed deal is a done deal," Schaefer said. "It will only be done when Floyd signs, and that hasn't happened yet. I don't know of any deal terms that are not agreed to. I don't understand it."
Source: sports.espn.go.com
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