LAS VEGAS – Everyone who talks about boxing’s glory days loses sight of the fact that behind the gripping scenes inside the ring, there was a merciless blood sport in play among the men competing for the fighters.
So everything that happened this week should likely be hailed as an indication that the sport is bound for a renaissance as promoters Oscar De La Hoya, Eddie Hearn and Dana White engaged in a highly public, highly toxic back-and-forth.
Character was assailed. Reputations endured assassination attempts. The gloves were taken off.
“It’s been a busy week with Uncle Fester running his piehole,” De La Hoya said of White on the Golden Boy’s social media “Clapack Thursday.” “Guess what, motherfucker, we’re just telling the facts. I have never in my entire life seen somebody believe they’re absolutely killing it when they’re not doing jack shit. Zuffa is a failed science project.”
De La Hoya, who sends his fighters Ryan Garcia and Oscar Duarte to Saturday night world title fights on a DAZN pay-per-view from T-Mobile Arena, worked to distinguish that event and his 20-plus-years of work as a promoter from the Sunday night event that White’s new Zuffa Boxing staged before an estimated sub-500 crowd down the street at the UFC Apex on Paramount+.
It was after that event that White went all-in on De La Hoya and Matchroom’s Hearn.
“I feel like I came in and I’m beating up babies. I expected more. I expected some pushback, that there would be more pain,” White said of his rivals. “They’re all way out of their league – absolutely, positively out of their league. I’m actually shocked.
“I saw Eddie Hearn saying the belt is cringey and all this stuff. I don’t think anybody looks at Eddie Hearn and says, ‘Oh, this guy’s a visionary.’ I look at him like I do most politicians: You’ve done nothing in this sport except stay in the lane, play by the rules and ride along with what’s been.
“You ended up being part of the problem. Eddie Hearn works for his dad [Barry]. I don’t think he’s ever come in with a vision, whereas we do. We’re going to change the entire sport.”
Hearn, staging a sellout card in England this weekend pitting Leigh Wood versus Josh Warrington, quickly answered White’s criticism by inking a new five-year deal with DAZN.
“That’s a sick mind. It’s very strange,” Hearn told a video reporter of White. “Dana’s always been so complimentary to us as a company and me as a promoter. To say that I don’t have any vision is really quite strange.”
Hearn made a point to mispronounce Zuffa.
“When you talk about Zuffa, or whatever it’s called, what’s their vision? Getting [broadcaster] Max Kellerman to tell everyone that Callum Walsh is the next Roy Jones? Or putting Charles Martin in the headline card of a Sunday show in front of 126 people in your garage? What sort of fucking vision is that? Or no, there’s a belt … that’s not vision. That’s control. Because the reality is, when he says we can’t compete, they can’t compete in this cutthroat world of boxing.
“Because it’s a horrible world and they don’t want to compete. They want to create their own world.”
Almost on cue, Zuffa on Friday signed British middleweight Conor Benn, whose profile and pair of blockbuster clashes with rival Chris Eubank Jnr were largely engineered by Hearn and Matchroom.
An argument could be made that no boxing match yet this year has been as entertaining as this saga, providing the sport a true throwback feel to the days when bitter rival promoters Don King and Bob Arum went toe-to-toe.
While Zuffa Boxing seeks to alter federal regulations with its own Ali Act that will allow it to rank and award belts to its fighters while avoiding required earnings disclosures, the company backed by a $10 million annual investment by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh additionally would prefer to not work with other promoters and sanctioning bodies.
On Sunday night, White took aim at WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman for stripping decorated multi-division champions Terence Crawford and Shakur Stevenson in a stretch of two months over unpaid sanctioning fees.
“This Sulaiman guy is incredible. He is the greatest P.R. guy for how fucked up boxing is of all time,” White said. “He’s incredible. … That guy should keep doing interviews every day. Keep talking. It’s incredible. I love it.”
On Thursday, De La Hoya offered a new diamond-crusted chain to the Garcia-Barrios winner and stood behind Sulaiman at a dinner, defending him.
“We will crown a great champion [Saturday], and I must say when I fought for [the WBC’s] green belt, it was the most special belt I carried around my waist,” De La Hoya said of knowing he shared that claim with his heroes Julio Cesar Chavez Snr, Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. “It was for what they did outside the ring, and this is what people don’t know.
“I loved paying sanctioning fees because I knew it was going for a good cause. What they do around the world for the kids to keep them involved in sports, to help them with their medicals … there wouldn’t be an ambulance outside waiting for you if you got hurt if you didn’t pay your sanctioning fees.
“Those sanctioning fees are far more important than anything because Mauricio Sulaiman and his [late] father started this movement to help the fighters and the sport of boxing.”
Before that speech at the refined restaurant, De La Hoya said on his “Clapback,” “Don’t get me started on the [Zuffa] belt … my Tom Ford belt has more history and significance.”
White, who will likely award the first Zuffa belt to IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia when he fights Brandon Glanton March 8 at the Apex, effectively dared De La Hoya to bring back “Clapback” after a one-week hiatus.
“What more could you say or do to Oscar De La Hoya right now?” White asked. “The ship is sinking [straight down] and he’s talking shit all the way down. Where is he? I hope we see one this Thursday. Can’t wait to watch it.”
De La Hoya went in on an abundance of Zuffa issues, alleging the company is harassing potential recruits, producing limited streams and overreaching about its talent on its broadcasts
“The fine print … everything with them is a fucking lie,” De La Hoya said on his “Clapback.” “The belt has always been the No. 1 guy against the No. 2 guy. Now, Jai Opetaia is fighting for the Zuffa belt and the Ring belt against Brandon Glanton, who is No. 15 in the world. The Ring brand is officially dead with Zuffa tied to its ballsack, drowning at the bottom of Lake Erie, next to Max Kellerman’s career.”
The verbal and business battles reveal how brutal and incestuous the sport is.
While Alalshikh is deeply invested in Zuffa, he’s a part owner of DAZN, needing Matchroom and De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions to thrive.
And while Hearn and De La Hoya are on opposite sides of the legal dispute surrounding the attempted 154lbs bout between unbeatens Vergil Ortiz Jnr and Jaron “Boots” Ennis, they each torched White for saying Hearn works for his dad, Matchroom founder Barry Hearn.
“At the moment, when you compare Matchroom shows to Zuffas shows, Zuffa shows are absolute, complete dogshit,” Eddie Hearn said. ”But they’re going to get better. They’ll sign some big fighters. Spend some money, [waste] some money. They’re clever people. But right now, they’re trying to manipulate fight fans and they don’t understand how intelligent fight fans are when it comes to boxing.
“Yes, I do work for my dad, but Dana White has worked for his daddy for a long time – the Fertitta brothers [in running the UFC]. And now [he] has a new daddy, Turki Alalshikh. He’s going to do whatever he’s told. It took him a nanosecond to get personal, and that’s because right now he’s at the bottom of the pile in regard to quality as a boxing promoter.”
Added De La Hoya: “Fester, wake the fuck up. You’re funded by daddies.
“I had no idea [about Sunday’s card] … they’re basically hosting club shows in the basement of the UFC.
“Zuffa’s roster is either filled with fighters at the tail end of their career or [those that] can’t make it at the highest level. If they get any big names, it’s only because they were donated by Turki.”
Less than a week ago, White was declaring them “babies.”
Now, those rivals have obviously been teething, delivering one heck of a bite.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
