Oscar De La Hoya and Dana White have never seen eye-to-eye and have been at each other’s throats over the past few years. However, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it appears that there is finally some common ground that the UFC president and the founder of Golden Boy Promotions can agree on.
After years of trading barbs in the media, De La Hoya praised White for his determination to get combat sports up and running again. With UFC 249 set to take place on May 9 in Jacksonville, Fla., De La Hoya took the time out to commend White while appearing on CBS Sports’ “State of Combat” podcast.
“I commend and respect Dana,” De La Hoya said. “We did have our differences. When I wanted to get involved with the MMA, I did Chuck Liddell (vs.) Tito Ortiz. It was a huge success. I dipped my toes into the water, and I experienced it. It was actually wonderful. I love the MMA.”
De La Hoya’s suggestion that he and White had their differences is an understatement. The feud began back when De La Hoya publicly panned the 2017 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC star Conor McGregor. White took exception to De La Hoya calling the fight a “joke of a fight” and ridiculed the boxing promoter.
Tensions rose again when De La Hoya dipped his toe into the world of MMA as a promoter when he put together a fight between Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, the first and last of Golden Boy MMA’s ventures.
White took exception to De La Hoya staging a fight between two aging fighters and took aim at the former boxing champion by calling him a “f—ing cokehead” among other unflattering things.
But De La Hoya sees it as all water under the bridge and applauded White’s persistence on bringing the UFC back.
“Dana came out and criticized me and ridiculed me and all that stuff,” De La Hoya said. “You know what? Dana is doing a phenomenal job in defending his sport, growing his sport, and he’s doing it big. He’s doing it great, man. I commend him.”
Not all boxing promoters are in sync with White’s pursuit of the UFC staging events. Top Rank’s Bob Arum is not in a celebratory mood and has raised concerns about the mixed martial arts promotion holding live events.
Nevertheless, it appears that everything is a go for UFC 249 and the rest of the combat sports world will be keeping a close eye on what transpires.