The Possibilities of Richard Schaefer’s Ringstar Announcement

What’s in store for boxing as Schaefer re-joins the sport after 2 years on the shelf?

Richard Schaefer returns to the world of boxing on December 10th. His first card will feature a former Mexican-American prospect in Abner Mares who grew under Schaefer’s promotion into a multi-division world champion and all-around draw in the sport. The undercard will include Jermall Charlo who began his ascension under the Schaefer-led Golden Boy banner defending his world title. It’s been almost 2 and a half years since Schaefer left Golden Boy and boxing behind, but Schaefer is back to bring his business sensibilities back to a sport steeped in archaic tradition.

We’ll never quite know what Schaefer could have done with Golden Boy Promotions due to the abrupt end to his tenure, but answers lay in the future of Ringstar Sports. Schaefer has called a press conference on November 7th for a “major announcement”. The rumors are it will be to announce the signing of US Olympian Carlos Balderas, a 20 year old Mexican-American from a small town 3 hours north of Los Angeles.

Given the plethora of rumors that Balderas has inked a deal with Schaefer’s new promotion, it leads to the question of whether or not there is more to the announcement. In fact, there has been a lot of speculation over the future of the entire US Olympic team. Balderas signing with Ringstar would be the first major announcement we’ve heard from any of the boxers to have competed in Rio. The belief was that the crown jewel of the team, Shakur Stevenson, would be the first to sign a deal and immediately fast tracked to stardom.

Following Stevenson’s social media would lead you to believe, however, that his signing will be later rather than sooner. Vague and ominous posts litter his timelines to the extent that its not clear what Stevenson’s intentions are or what his future holds.

But what if there’s more to the announcement than Carlos Balderas signing? The exact wording in the press release is:

Schaefer will host media for a special luncheon to discuss the news and future of Ringstar

This line, combined with the title which promises a major announcement yields the question of what would be major? If we speculate for a bit, and consider Schaefer’s history of altering the shape of the boxing business, what if this announcement is going to be bigger?

We provide a deep list of speculative ventures for the new promotional outfit. Some will be feasible and some blatantly unrealistic. But considering the landscape of the sport, we can draw some assumptions that might provide us a clearer picture of what we will see on Monday.

1 What if the actual target for Ringstar is not just Balderas, but the entire American Olympic team? What if the announcement is the signing of a handful of the team and the future of Ringstar will be directly tied to the young men who competed at the Rio games?

Ringstar has stated that not only is the promotion of boxing in the cards, but also a TV series of some form. What if their goal is to create a TV series focused solely on the young Olympians as they find their path toward stardom.

With Schaefer’s close relationship with Al Haymon, we could see one of the PBC networks giving Schaefer airtime for his series dedicated to the development of the next wave of boxing’s superstars. We know that during the 80s and 90s, USA Network aired Tuesday Night Boxing and it was instrumental in the developing of fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Oscar De La Hoya, and Roy Jones Jr to name a few. USA Network is owned by the same parent company as NBC (PBC relationship) and aired Olympic coverage. With USA’s history of developing the sport of boxing combined with their Olympic history, it might be natural to see a series dedicated to developing Olympians on their network.

Imagine a boxing TV series that is as much about fights as it is about the growth of young fighters like Carlos Balderas and Shakur Stevenson. This could be an unprecedented move in boxing and a step in the right direction.

2 The return of Floyd Mayweather. Little more needs to be said when it comes to this subject, but the signs are there for a Floyd return. He was ringside at Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Jessie Vargas, he’s releasing clips of him sparring, and he continues to state he is a businessman open for business-related discussion. We’d have to look at the relationship Mayweather had with Schaefer as that would be the only way Mayweather is willing to split revenue given he’s done so well promoting himself in the recent memory.

3 If we’re going to go unrealistic, we should go all the way. A major announcement would be that he’s stealing Canelo. Okay… that’s not what it is.

It’s clear 2 and 3 are very likely not going to happen. That leads us to believe that Ricard’s team have big plans for Balderas and the Olympic team that manage to sign with Ringstar. It seems completely plausible that they’ll partner with one of the traditional boxing networks (like USA) to help these fighters connect with audiences and become more than just champions who aren’t recognized outside of the fight community.

After all, the biggest critique of modern American boxing when compared to Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and Cuba is that there isn’t enough investment and development of our amateur program. A move like this could influence a generation of young fighters and provide an easy pathway for amateurs to develop not only their in-ring skills, but their star power all at the same time. Monday will have the answers and we will be there to reveal what that might be.