Oscar de la Hoya and the Brain: What do They have in Common?

—"Gee Pinky, what do you want to do tonight?"

—"The same thing we do every night...try to take over the world!"

If we were to replace Pinky's name with Oscar's, would the feeling hold true?

Ever since his retirement, the Golden Boy has been busy taking care of business at his promotional company aptly named Golden Boy Promotions (GBP). And he's not alone.

Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Winky Wright serve as managing partners, and Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricky Hatton (among others) also have interests in the company.

As a side note, it should be noted that Oscar-led Golden Boy Enterprises (which holds a majority stake at GBP) invests in a diverse portfolio of businesses, which includes an MLS soccer team, select consumer products, and print media. Ring Magazine is the print media outlet that most concerns us right now.

But returning to Golden Boy Promotions, it is known they have been expanding their operations outside the American market. They have teamed up with partners in Latin America in order to put together cards that serve to find new talents in that part of the world. And more recently, GBP announced their partnership with Universum Box Promotions (Germany's top boxing promotional firm).

So what does all of this mean to the sweet science in general?

Regardless of the low or high regard in which boxing fans hold Oscar, his cohorts, and the general dislike towards large corporations most people feel, it should still be allowed that consolidation of some sort could help boxing in some ways. Negotiations between fighters, promotional and marketing efforts, even branding of the sport, and its stars could get a boost from having a unified team behind them, working for the same goals.

Not to mention, matchmaking could suddenly become a lot better, in terms of putting competitive fights on cards, and even making that all elusive dream of fans of the sweet science come true: seeing the best facing the best in the ring. And here is where Ring Magazine comes in.

Even taking into account that Golden Boy Enterprises already owns Ring Magazine, most of the boxing world agrees that the championship titles of the self-proclaimed Bible of Boxing, which are passed down lineally, tend to have the most relevance. In case of vacancies, these are the rules they follow to award the title:

Championship vacancies can be filled by winning a box-off between The Ring's number-one and number-two contenders, or, in certain instances, a box-off between our number-one and number-three contenders.

The only three occasions when a fighter will lose his championship status are when he retires, moves to another weight division, or is defeated in a championship bout.

The Ring Ratings are compiled by the magazine's editorial board, with the participation of The Ring Ratings Panel of boxing journalists from around the world.

So, if Ring Magazine manages to maintain independence in forming its panel, rating boxers by wide consensus, and keeps awarding titles lineally or going by its already established rules, there would be no reason to hold them in lower regard.

The knee-jerk reaction to an argument such as I have made is negative. Nobody likes monopolies, and much less the people who lead them. But even economic theories allow for monopolies under certain circumstances (look up "Natural Monopolies"). And if we look at the other mainstream professional sports: football, baseball, and basketball, they all benefitted from consolidation, from putting all the teams under one roof: NFL, MLB, and NBA. It made matchmaking easier, as well as clearly identifying the best team (aka "the champion"), bringing new talent, and promoting and marketing the sport in general.

Finally, the purpose of this article is not to champion the cause of GBP, or any other promotional company. The main purpose of this piece is to highlight the benefits that even some degree of consolidation could bring to the sport. The only reason for writing it from the point of view of GBP is that it is this company that is doing the most to consolidate its position in boxing for the long term.

However, it is still a long way from where we are to the hypothetical future described above, but that does not keep us from reflecting on these issues and forming our opinions. This sport does not only belong to the promoters, fighters, and trainers, but to us as well. In fact, if it wasn't for fans, there would be no professional boxing. Let's keep this in mind next time we voice our opinions.