LAS VEGAS -- Retired from the ring or not, Oscar De La Hoya will always be a fighter at heart.

He won a 1992 Olympic gold medal -- hence the famous "Golden Boy" nickname -- 10 world titles in a then-record six weight divisions, earned some $300 million as the biggest star in boxing for much of his 1992 to 2008 career and in June was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

As passionately as he fought inside the ring, De La Hoya has that same fierce attitude as he fights to keep his Golden Boy Promotions at the top of the boxing industry in the wake of its recent upheaval stemming from the June 2 resignation of Richard Schaefer, De La Hoya's former friend, company co-founder and its only CEO, who built the company into a powerhouse. The resignation came after a falling out with De La Hoya, who filed a subsequent arbitration against Schaefer seeking $50 million in damages.

The reason for the fracture in the De La Hoya-Schaefer relationship has been portrayed by both sides as stemming from two issues. One was De La Hoya's desire to make peace and to do business again with his former promoter, Bob Arum, whose Top Rank has long been Golden Boy's chief promotional rival. Schaefer didn't trust Arum and was adamantly against it. The other issue was De La Hoya's unhappiness with the fact Golden Boy was promoting numerous boxers under advisory contracts with Al Haymon, who, with Schaefer's OK, refused to sign them to promotional agreements with the company, giving him inordinate leverage.

While those certainly were issues, the real seeds of the falling out were sewn eight days into De La Hoya's rehabilitation stint last September when, according to multiple sources, famed attorney Robert Shapiro, who had sponsored his entrance into a Malibu rehab center just days before his company would promote the highest-grossing fight in boxing history, Floyd Mayweather Jr's win against Canelo Alvarez, presented De La Hoya with a deal Schaefer was negotiating to sell Golden Boy for $100 million, although who the would-be buyer was is unclear.

"Oscar was in an extremely dark place and he was being told, 'This business, boxing, is bad for you. It's time for you to get out,'" a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN.com. "What was given to him in the condition he was in, there was no way he could process it. It wasn't something he wanted to do but he was told, 'You can get out, you can get away from the pressures, you can make a bunch of money.' He was in a very vulnerable situation."

Another source with direct knowledge of what happened said that De La Hoya was given some 50-plus pages of paperwork on the deal while at his lowest point.

"Oscar was in rehab, medicated and he was being told, 'You're through with boxing. Sell your company.' It was a bad situation. It was a s----- thing for Richard to do the way he did it," the source said.

By around March, De La Hoya had tentatively agreed to sell, but eventually changed his mind, much to Schaefer's dismay.

"The more Oscar peeled back the layers of the deal, the more it was like an onion. It smelled," one of the sources said.

For one thing, De La Hoya, according to sources, was outraged when he learned that Schaefer would remain involved with the entity buying Golden Boy -- and that so would Haymon -- and that De La Hoya would have severe restrictions placed on his ability to use his own nickname, logo and likeness for decades.

"Would it upset him if someone tried to sell that company -- the result of all of his hard work over the last 30 years -- from under him? I think it's fair to say, 'Absolutely,'" said one of the sources with knowledge of the proposal.

On multiple occasions Schaefer, citing pending litigation, declined to address anything related to his exit from Golden Boy Promotions.

De La Hoya said he couldn't go into detail about Schaefer's exit, the arbitration or a possible sale. But a relaxed De La Hoya, who showed up for the 45-minute interview with ESPN.com with no handlers the day before Alvarez-Erislandy Lara, did say, "I don't know [what happened with Schaefer], I really don't know. Maybe greed? But I'm still trying to figure out what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong in order to get a kick when I was on the floor?

"I can't talk about any legal stuff until I get orders from my lawyer. Hopefully, we'll get all of this resolved sooner than later. It's not a dark cloud over my head but it's a distraction."

When asked again about the possible sale, he said, "I really can't comment on it. I will tell you one thing -- my side of the street is squeaky clean, for the first time in my life. That's all I have to say."

Man in charge: Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions is behind the Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana rematch. Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

Light heavyweight titlist Bernard Hopkins, who owns about 5 percent of Golden Boy, told ESPN.com that he was told by his lawyer, Eric Melzer, that there was a strong possibility that De La Hoya would sell his majority stake in the company (approximately 55 percent) and that the other shareholders, Anschutz Entertainment Group (approximately 20 percent), investor Gabriel Brener (approximately 12 percent) and Schaefer (approximately 8 percent) were on board.

"Eventually, companies are built up and then they are sold," Hopkins said. "Richard mentioned the possibility to Eric, who mentioned it to me. I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I would have made money. I heard the company was going to be sold and Oscar approved it and then changed his mind. My thing is a person has a right to change their mind.

"To know that a relationship broke up, it's a shame if it's over that. They had a great situation going on. Richard ran the company. Oscar was dealing with his own demons and Richard was a hard worker, but there are some 'buts' in there."

When Schaefer resigned there were many who thought Golden Boy would be in deep trouble, especially when Mayweather, the pay-per-view king, said he would no longer work with Golden Boy. After all, Mayweather and Schaefer are close and the fighter said Schaefer was the only reason that he worked with Golden Boy on a fight-by-fight basis for his past nine bouts (beginning with his 2007 pay-per-view record-breaker against De La Hoya).

But in the aftermath of Schaefer's resignation, De La Hoya made two important moves that showed his strength. The first was to get Mayweather, Haymon's most important fighter, to change his mind and stay with Golden Boy, at least through his Sept. 13 rematch with Marcos Maidana, although he had no other realistic option with the fight so close.

"The bottom line is we bring a lot to the table to a promotion," De La Hoya said. "We have the infrastructure and I would hope that with these last nine fights they are pleased with what Golden Boy can do for them. History shows we've been doing pretty well for him for a long time. The way I see it why should they change?"