A loyal and pivotal figure of the Floyd Mayweather camp has bid his farewell. Wearing the CEO hat for Mayweather Promotions for almost a decade, and after providing dedicated service to ‘Pretty Boy’ for 25+ years, Leonard Ellerbe has decided to call it quits. In a statement, Mayweather stated that Ellerbe decided to step down as the CEO  to “spend more time with his family and loved ones”.  Joining ‘Money’ Mayweather’s camp in 1997, he worked his way up from being his bodyguard, to making crucial business decisions for him. Ellerbe’s replacement will have big shoes to fill. In steps former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.

‘Money’ Mayweather is making a big gamble. However, if we bear witness to Floyd’s earlier business decisions, it should pay off. Mayweather’s friendship with Schaefer fostered during the latter’s tenure with Golden Boy Promotions (GBP). On that note, let’s take a deep dive into the background of Richard Schaefer which made him get the final nod from Mayweather for the top job in his promotional company.

A successful banking background to impress Money Mayweather?

Schaefer had an impressive portfolio in the banking industry before making the jump to become a boxing promoter. After graduating from the Swiss Banking School, he became the manager of the Swiss Bank office in Los Angeles in 1994. Following the merger of SBC with Union Bank of Switzerland to form UBS, he was in charge of the company’s operation in the Western region of the United States.

With profits rolling in for the Swiss private financial behemoth under his reign, he was rewarded with the post of deputy CEO of all private banking operations in the United States in 1997. During his tenure, UBS handled two trillion dollars in assets. Shockingly, with the turn of the century, he decided to jump into the cutthroat world of boxing promotions, leaving his lucrative job in finance.

Schaefer’s golden past with Golden Boy Promotions

Following his successful stint as a banker, Schaefer co-founded Golden Boy Promotions with boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya and served as the company’s CEO. From managing fighters to event promotion, he has done it all and everything in between. Certain key business decisions can be attributed to him that made Golden Boy Promotions a force to reckon with in the promotional space.

To list a few of his achievements, he secured a deal for a boxing television series on Fox Sports 1 and brokered major sponsorship deals with numerous mainstream companies. The icing on the cake was when he got the company an exclusive deal to be the sole promoter of fights at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. What’s more? He also oversaw the smooth functioning of many record-breaking boxing events under the Golden Boy banner. Some of these iconic fights include the 2007 fight between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which garnered a whopping 2.5 million PPV buys; and the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez. A cordial relationship with HBO and later Showtime also helped. How? The broadcasting of big PPV events went without a hitch.

As we see, Schaefer’s relationship with Floyd Mayweather proved to be fruitful for the promotional company’s business interests. Floyd made it abundantly clear that the former Swiss banker was the only reason he was doing business with Golden Boy Promotions. In fact, after Schaefer’s association with Oscar De La Hoya ended, Mayweather cut his ties with GBP.

Unfortunately, various conflicts of business interests with the company’s head honcho Oscar De La Hoya led him to part ways with the company in 2014.  “After more than 10 years with Golden Boy, it is time to move on to the next chapter of my career,” he had said in his statement.

“I am proud to remain a shareholder, so I have a strong interest in the continued success of the company. I am proud of what we have accomplished at Golden Boy, but I now look forward to new challenges,” he concluded.

Schaefer never loses his Midas touch 

Schaefer remained in the boxing space after his reign at Golden Boy Promotions ended. He founded his own promotional company Ringstar Sports in 2016. It has since become Hayemaker Ringstar, after the merger with noted boxing star David Haye’s promotion  Hayemaker Promotions. He also started a boxing promotion and media company called Probellium in 2021.

That’s not all! Schaefer also helped kick off the World Boxing Super Series in 2017, an annual knockout competition, a joint venture of Sauerland Promotions and Richard Schaefer, featuring eight boxers in each weight class.

The Swiss Promoter is also the new president of the Anthem Sports Group, the parent company of Invicta Fighting Championships and TNA Wrestling. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the banker-turned-sports tycoon has a net worth of $20 Million.

When it comes to his personal life, not much is known other than the fact that he grew up in Switzerland and is a married man with three kids.

So, do you think that Mayweather’s association with Richard Schaefer will prove to be bountiful in the long run? Will he be able to fill the void left by Ellerbe’s absence? Let us know in the comments below.