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Add FightsATW on GoogleOscar De La Hoya’s absence during the Ryan Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs) vs Conor Benn (25-2, 14 KOs) showdown stuck out like a sore thumb, and that is putting it lightly. However, according to De La Hoya, that was the only way he could avoid being set up.
In an interview with Fight Hub TV, De La Hoya opened up about why he decided to pass on the fight.
“I wasn’t going to show up to be embarrassed. It was a Zuffa f*cking event. A ‘Zuffa event,’ a ‘Turki event’. I was not going to show up and be embarrassed, because that’s exactly what they were going to do to me. I was not going to do that. So, I made the wise decision to not go,” he said.
His concerns centered on what he regarded as increasingly disrespectful treatment of him and Golden Boy during fight week. De La Hoya said Zuffa denied him the appropriate credentials and that he felt the event was structured in a way that marginalized Golden Boy, including scheduling Golden Boy fighters Alexis Rocha and Jose Ramirez unusually early on the undercard.
The deeper issue was De La Hoya’s long-running feud with Dana White, which made him suspicious that appearing at an event largely controlled by Zuffa and Alalshikh could turn into a public humiliation. Moreover, he also pointed to the treatment of Teofimo Lopez, who was reportedly prevented from participating in a planned faceoff with Garcia, as evidence of the kind of situation he feared could happen to him.
“Oh yeah, so much sh*t happened in those dealings, in those contracts, but let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t go because I was going to be set up. You saw Teofimo, how they didn’t allow him in the ring to have a faceoff with Ryan, and embarrassed him not going up there. It’s like, I’m not going to be embarrassed going to an event where my fighter is participating in. I just wasn’t going to do it,” he said.
“I Would Never Do That”
White, however, quickly refuted De La Hoya’s claims. After the Contender series, he admitted that, despite his dislike, he wasn’t one to stop anyone from attending an event.
“I would never do that. Listen, my dislike for Oscar De La Hoya is very well known. He knows it, I know it, and it’s mutual…I would never have somebody show up to an event and do that,” he said. “Oscar knew he had tickets. Oscar knew where he was sitting. Oscar was coming in the back, like all the celebrities do, to the celebrity VIP area, and he knew all of that. I’m not saying that in his mind he didn’t think, ‘Maybe these guys are gonna do that,’ but let’s just be straight up and open about this: I would never do that to anybody.”
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