The boxing gloves are coming off…

Richard Schaefer resigned from Golden Boy Promotions about a month ago but surely everyone knew it would not be that easy.  President, co-founder, and former friend Oscar De La Hoya delivered the first blow in what’s expected to be a long drawn out war.

Golden Boy filed an arbitration for $50 million in damages against Schaefer, a source with knowledge of the filing told ESPN.com on Thursday.  Golden Boy maintains that Schaefer remains under contract to the company through March 2018.

Other than the dollar figure it is asking for, it is unclear what Golden Boy is accusing Schaefer of, although much of the public discussion surrounding his leaving the company has centered on the fact that he regularly put fighters advised by Al Haymon on major cards even though Golden Boy did not have them under promotional contract, which angered De La Hoya.

The reason that the case is going to private arbitration rather than court, where the records would be public, is because Schaefer’s employment agreement with Golden Boy has a clause stating that if either party sued the other it would be done through arbitration rather than a lawsuit, according to the source.

Floyd Mayweather who works closely with Schaefer and has personal issues with De La Hoya, left Golden Boy just hours after Schaefer.  As boxing’s biggest and most profitable star, losing Mayweather was a big hit to the promotional company.

Schaefer, who still holds a roughly 8 percent stake in the company, said simply, “I have no comment. I’m not going to talk about it.”  De La Hoya declined to comment as well.

– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)