Dana White and Oscar De La Hoya already were rivals, but the legendary boxer turned promoter’s attempt to get into MMA has really heated things up.
After months of bickering — which included De La Hoya claiming 40-50 UFC fighters have contacted him about fighting for Golden Boy — White suggested during a recent appearance on the ESPN program Get Up that he and De La Hoya both be publicly drug tested and settle things in a debate.
De La Hoya, however, during an appearance on The Luke Thomas Show on SiriusXM, had another idea: the two promoters actually get into the ring.
“Let’s get in the ring,” De La Hoya said. “Yeah, why not? Let’s get in the ring. Three rounds, let’s do this.”
In a fight between @OscarDeLaHoya and @danawhite, who you got?
On air today with @lthomasnews, the Golden Boy challenged the UFC president to a fight next May.#TLTS pic.twitter.com/qvQPOQR3Iv
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) December 13, 2018
Golden Boy Promotions staged its first MMA event on Nov. 24, featuring the previously-retired Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz competing in a trilogy encounter in the main event, which Ortiz won with a one-sided, first-round knockout. White has stepped up his verbal attacks in the aftermath, while De La Hoya criticized the UFC’s pay scale and praised Golden Boy’s, something which White is calling the Golden Boy head out on.
“I have paid Chuck Liddell more money over the years not to fight in the last seven years than he paid him to fight Tito Ortiz. That’s a fact, number one,” White said as a guest on ESPN’s First Take. “From 2011 to 2017, when I asked him to retire, we paid him around $400,000 a year to not fight…This is about an idiot coming on this show and lying. He’s a liar.”
Liddell was paid $250,000 for the Golden Boy fight, according to the California State Athletic Commission. This does not account for potential pay-per-view points. The pay-per-view saw about 30,000 buys, falling way short of De La Hoya’s projections.
White also pointed out that of the $580,000 in disclosed fighter payouts, just $95,000 went to fighters not competing in the main event or co-main event. White claims UFC undercard fighters have been paid a total of about $1.2 million in 2018.
Regardless, De La Hoya says the door is open, even suggesting the fight between the two occur during Cinco De Mayo weekend, which is also when Canelo Alvarez is expected to fight next following his bout with Rocky Fielding.
“Let’s do this under Canelo Cinco de Mayo,” de la Hoya said. “I’ll even give you five months so you can get off the juice and then we can, you know, get in great shape and then we go three rounds, and then, I’m going to give you what, a 50-pound advantage? That’s okay, I can take you on. Let’s do it.”
Original Story: MMA Fighting