Millions will splash out for the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather pay-per-view but Oscar De La Hoya will not be one of them.
Last week, De La Hoya released a statement via Facebook in which he slammed the forthcoming confirmation of McGregor’s boxing debut against one of the greatest fighters to ever take to the ring.
“It’s a win-win for them. It’s a lose-lose for us,” De La Hoya wrote. “We’ll be $100 lighter and we will have squandered another opportunity to bring boxing back to its rightful place as the sport of kings.
“At this point, only we can shut the circus down by making it clear that we won’t pay to see a joke of a fight and telling our casual-fan friends that they shouldn’t either.”
It's all about self-interest https://t.co/qs3i6LuW6M
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) May 27, 2017
While he argued that the fact that he is in charge of Golden Boy Promotions has nothing to do with his new-found hatred of the bout, it did come across to many that he would not have such a problem with the fight if the payday was coming via one of his charges.
UFC president Dana White is certainly of that belief and, after doing some digging, he’s found that De La Hoya was recently rather in favour of McGregor’s boxing debut coming against one of the best in the world when the fighter in question was Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
De La Hoya promotes ‘Canelo’ so of course he is going to be open to the idea of staging the most lucrative combat sports spectacle of all time when it has the potential to benefit his pocket.
WTF @OscarDeLaHoya ????? @TheNotoriousMMA @FloydMayweather pic.twitter.com/oBeAotPGOo
— danawhite (@danawhite) May 31, 2017
“If Conor is serious about fighting – first of all, I would love to talk to him and promote him,” De La Hoya told FightHub last December. “I mean, imagine Conor McGregor and Golden Boy coming together.
“But the only fight I would love to see, and this is the one that makes the most sense, that would be the most exciting, that would be a guaranteed knockout, is against ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. And they’re in the same weight class.
“So it makes all the sense in the world. Imagine. 154lbs… 160lbs actually. It would be at 160lbs.”
White couldn’t help but point out the hypocrisy on De La Hoya’s part but, to be fair, there’s not a fight promoter walking the planet who hasn’t been dishonest at some point or another.
It comes with the territory.
