Why legendary boxer Oscar De La Hoya wanted to fight UFC president Dana White
Oscar De La Hoya and Dana White's public feud started a long time ago and even culminated in the owner of Golden Boy promotions challenging the UFC president to a three-round boxing match. Oscar De La Hoya wanted to settle scores with Dana White on the same card where the former's protege Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez was moving up in weight class to fight Rocky Fielding. Oscar De La Hoya took to The Luke Thomas Show to call out Dana White-
Let's get in the ring. Three rounds. Let's do this! Let's do this under Canelo, Cinco de Mayo. I'll even give you five months so you can get off the juice and then we can get in great shape and then we go three rounds. I'm going to give you a 50lbs advantage? It's OK. I can take you on. Let's do it.
In an earlier interview with TMZ Sports Oscar De La Hoya had said he would beat Dana White's ass when asked about a potential fight with the UFC president. Not one to back down, Dana White confirmed on ESPN's Get Up that he would fight Oscar De La Hoya any day of the week.
The reason behind Oscar De La Hoya and Dana White's conflict.
Dana White used to manage UFC superstars Chuck Liddel and Tito Ortiz long before he became UFC president. The Iceman and Tito Ortiz even sported a famous rivalry which culminated in huge amounts of revenue for the UFC. When the Iceman decided to hang up his gloves in 2010, following several concerning defeats, Dana White was somewhat relieved for his friend. However, Dana White's feud with Oscar De La Hoya became personal when Golden Boy promotions approached Chuck Liddel and Tito Ortiz for a trilogy fight. Speaking on a UFC Unfiltered podcast in 2018, Dana White said-
I love Chuck Liddell and I don’t ever want to bad mouth Chuck Liddell. People even think I’m remotely bad mouthing Chuck Liddell, but the reality is – first of all, I heard last week the cokehead ‘Oscar De La Weirdo’ is talking s*** that I don’t have any place to tell guys when to retire. First of all, it’s called ‘friendship’ you f****** cokehead.
Oscar De La Hoya claimed UFC fighters were coming out of retirement to earn big money as Dana White isn't paying them enough.