Dana White was at her favorite event (the one with her name on it) last night. And he was able to hand out minimum contracts to the fighters who could impress him the most. Last night it including someone who had worked as his personal assistant.
After the show, White took questions from reporters. Presumably, many of those questions were about his questionable involvement in the biggest upcoming fight on the calendar: Tyson Fury Vs. Anthony Joshua. It gave him a chance spare the words and rob your current number one contender Eddie Hearn.
It wasn’t all hype, though. White also got a chance to talk about his other least favorite of the boxing world, Oscar De La Hoya. However, when talking about him, White tried to explain that he is taking the high road.
This latest feud between White and De La Hoya revolves around the recent Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn fight, which on paper was a co-promotion between De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions (which represents Garcia) and ZUFFA Boxing (which represents Benn).
Despite being a co-promotion, it looks like ZUFFA may have made a strong run through the deal and were able to control much of the fight. It would have been thanks to the power of Turki Aalshikh, whose well of Saudi oil money supports ZUFFA Boxing.
De La Hoya certainly believes all of this. In recent interviews, he claimed that employees and boxers associated with Golden Boy were treated in Garcia Vs. Bad in Benn’s fight. He also said he refused to participate in the fight because he thought he was being set up.
Setup, per informs MMA fightwhich included assigning De La Hoya tickets that weren’t ringside but were meant for the celebrity VIP area. “I wasn’t going to show up and be embarrassed because that’s what they did to me. I wasn’t going to do that. So I made the smart decision not to go,” De La Hoya said. Fight Hub TV.
White strongly denied the claims last night.
“I would never do that,” he said (h/t MMA fight). “Look, my dislike of Oscar De La Hoya is very well known. He knows it, I know it, and it’s mutual.”
White then bragged that instead of setting someone up with bad tickets, he’s more likely to call them and threaten them.
“I’d call and say, ‘Don’t even try to show up for this damn fight. You’re not welcome.” I would never let someone show up to an event and (sham them with bad tickets).
Bad tickets seem to trigger a particularly difficult memory for White. At a press conference, he explained how former WWE boss Vince McMahon got him into the game when Ronda Rousey debuted in the wrestling ring.
White said she traveled to New Orleans to see Rousey’s first bout, only to find there were no tickets waiting. White said he was then given tickets, but they were “in the damn bleachers.”
“I’ve been through it all,” he said. “I wouldn’t even do that to an enemy; I wouldn’t.”
After saying that he would never give De La Hoya bad tickets, White then talked about the bad tickets that were given to De La Hoya.
“Oscar knew where he sat,” White said. “Oscar came from behind, like all celebrities, into the celebrity VIP area, and he knew it all. I’m not saying he wasn’t thinking in the back of his mind, ‘Maybe these guys are doing this,’ but let’s be straight and honest about it: I would never do that to anybody.”
So, De La Hoya was assigned to sit in the VIP section with the celebrities…people who had nothing to do with the fight, rather than ringside where the promoters usually sit. I understood.
White and De La Hoya have a heated feud at this point. It doesn’t get as many headlines as him and Hearn. That’s mostly because of Hearn’s verbosity and how much fun it is to write about.
De La Hoya has his own tips though. When you talk Yahoo Sports he called White “Uncle Fester” and claimed that White was just playing a role for the cameras while Aalshikh pulled all the strings.
This is not the first time White has been compared to lead Aalshikh. We just saw someone in a job like that get a big promotion at the Contender Series. Perhaps White hopes that one day something similar will happen to him.