Taken down
The rivalry between Dana White and Oscar De La Hoya has kicked into a new gear yet again.
The pair were once friends, but now share an ongoing feud which stems from the UFC president's fury at the boxing legend for writing a lengthy Facebook post telling fans not to watch Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor back in 2017.
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White was of course a key figure in promoting that bout, hence his anger.
White and De La Hoya went back and forth on Instagram just last week as De La Hoya responded to White’s claim that he faked COVID to pull out of his Triller comeback fight with Vitor Belfort, which was scheduled for September 11.
De La Hoya wrote: “That’s all you got, Dana White? You’re accusing me of FAKING a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans to avoid a fight?
“You pathetic piece of s***, you’ve never even laced up the gloves. And you completely ignored my original point I made about UNDERPAYING YOUR FIGHTERS.”
White hit back quickly and also responded to previous comments that De La Hoya had made about the amount UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was paid after his UFC 266 main event performance on September 25.
“Don’t worry about Volkanovski you clown,” White wrote. “He has a team of very intelligent, sophisticated people behind him and he’s clearly doing very well for himself. If he needs to buy an 8 ball then maybe he will reach out to you for some guidance.
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“It’s no secret you’re a liar, drug addict, and all around scumbag. It doesn’t matter that you ‘laced up gloves’ and there is no doubt you accomplished big things in boxing. But out of the ring you’re an absolute f***ing loser."
White continued by targeting De La Hoya's own attempt at promoting an MMA fight back in 2018 - Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell 3.
“When you were a one and done MMA promoter you lied about what Chuck [Liddell] and Tito [Ortiz] would make and you paid everyone s***.
“Not to mention you didn’t even take the time to learn the names of your fighters on the card. So f*** off.
"Leave the fight promoting to me and do the whole world a favour and fight Vitor Belfort so we can all watch you go to sleep.”
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White faced the press days later for his 'Contender' series and, when prompted, he was ready to unload on the fighter pay debate and on De La Hoya.
“Normally, you guys know how this stuff works,” White started. “People like to push the buttons and talk about fighter pay and you don’t see us coming out and talking about it because I don’t give a s***...
“At the end of the day, my philosophy is this: It’s nobody's f***ing business what these fighters are making.
“None of these guys are under some type of gag order in their contract. Any fighter on the roster could come out and tell you what they make.
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“But they don’t tell you. Do you know why they don’t tell you? Because they don’t want you to know.
“We run a real business. Boxing is not a real business. They run, what, one event a year? Maybe three? Five? They run shows like it’s their last one ever.
“The guys at the top of the card make all the money. We run 52 to 53 shows a year. It’s a business and one of the other things we do is we reinvest in the sport.
“Not just in the business of the UFC, but the sport and we’ve built a global business over the past 20 years. We have infrastructure. We have over 450 employees,” said White.
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The UFC head honcho continued to detail how UFC have offices all around the world and training centres in different continents to emphasise his point.
“When you think about it, guys like [Bob] Arum and De La Hoya never had the vision to do anything like this and it’s never been done,” White continued.
“Everyone thinks they know what they’re talking about and everyone has an opinion. You know what you guys know about this business? What I f***ing tell you.”
White then squarely turned his attention to De La Hoya and let rip on his perceived lies.
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“The only reason I’m telling you this is because he is a lying, hypocritical, two-faced sack of s*** and I hate him so much, that I love to prove he’s a lying, hypocritical, two-faced sack of s***,” White said as a preface.
“All the former UFC fighters who were on his card made more in their last [UFC] bout than they did for his event,” he insisted. “Most of them made more in multiple or all of their UFC bouts, right?
“So 17 of the 22 fighters got less than the starting compensation in the UFC, the guys who fought on his MMA card.
“Now, where I’m going with this is this a**hole, every time he opens his mouth, acts like no.1 - like when he puts on an event, he pays more than we do or something.
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“Yeah, you pay f***ing Canelo [Alvarez] a s***load of money, who you couldn’t even hold on to, you couldn’t even keep. He f***ing left you too, right?
“How about this: I have 650 fighters under contract. He had f***ing one that mattered. He couldn’t keep him.
“Twelve of the 22 fighters got compensated less than what we pay kids on the Contender Series.
“Remember the big narrative for that one where Chuck and Tito [in 2018] are going to make more than they ever made?” White asked.
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“The last time Chuck Liddell made less than $250,000 in the UFC was in August 2004 at UFC 49.
"The last time Tito Ortiz made less than $250,000 in the UFC was February 2005 for UFC 51. And just for the record, that was when we were still $40 million in the hole. We weren’t making money.
“So think about this: Chuck Liddell, his last fight in the UFC, Chuck lost five of his last six and he still made, on his last fight in the UFC, ten times more than what Oscar paid him.
“Tito Ortiz won one of his last nine fights. Tito Ortiz’s last nine fights, he won one. He made 12 times in the UFC for his last fight what Oscar paid him.
“So there’s another f***ing lie from Oscar De La Hoya.”
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White then handed out documents to the media that showed the payment records of a boxing card put on by De La Hoya's company Golden Boy Promotions on June 9.
“What you’ve been handed, I could’ve brought 30 of these,” White said. “I brought one because it’s June 9, 2021. OK? This was a fight that just happened in June. It’s a Golden Boy Promotions fight that this d***head put on, OK?
“There were nine fights, 18 fighters. The total purses paid for every fight was $36,500. Total. The average purse per fighter is $2,000 on a Golden Boy De Le Hoya card.
“Volkanovski got paid more to wear his UFC Venum kit [at UFC 266] than Oscar De La Hoya paid the entire f***ing fight card.
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“I could go on, but I think we all get the f***ing point. He’s a liar.
“And there’s so much more on De La Hoya,” White continued. “He owes people money that fought for him that he hasn’t paid.
“The list goes on and on. Imagine if I still owed a fighter from f***ing a year ago, you would crucifix me on a daily basis. This guy, nobody gives a s***.
“And the only reason [I’m responding to him], I just despise him so bad that every time he f***ing lies, I point it out, and still people don’t give a s***.
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“You don’t like the way we pay our fighters? Too f***ing bad,” White said.
“Go start another MMA organization and you go f***ing figure out how to do it and you could pay them $10 million a fight, $30 million a fight, whatever you want to do.”
Point taken.
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