Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya has come out to once again voice his displeasure over supposed meetings and plans to stage a Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn fight without his involvement. De La Hoya says he’s still yet to be approached about formally making the fight despite announcements and word that it will take place this fall.
“Lots of fake news going around,” De La Hoya said. “So people are posting about the Ryan Garcia fight and the Conor Benn fight in Las Vegas, September 12, but I have yet
to be approached about making this fight. We signed a two fight deal for Ryan with the Saudis last year. The first fight was with Barrios and apparently the Saudis have chosen Conor Benn to be Ryan’s next opponent.
“Nobody’s asking for this fight. The fans definitely not wanting this fight, and if it were up to me I would’ve picked Devin Haney for the rematch. That’s a much bigger fight. But because Turki owns Zuffa and wants to help them out, he picked Conor Benn. That’s fine. I mean, look, you can’t just make fights without Golden Boy and DAZN. I know Paramount wants the Ryan fight on their network because they’re regular Zuffa fights do a few thousand views. I can’t imagine how disappointed Paramount is, but there are contracts in place.
“You can’t just do whatever you want here in America. There are laws and legally binding contracts. Turki and Sela, you can’t just call up any fighter you want and make a fight. You can’t put fights on any network you want. That’s why you’re getting sued left and right. It’s why you wanted to call a ‘peace meeting’ with Frank [Warren] and Eddie [Hearn] over a war you started.
“And by the way, you left me, Al Haymon and Bob Arum out of your peace meeting. And guess what, we control the US market…Everyone agrees [Dana White] is terrible. All he does is f-ck the UFC fighters and you want to replicate that model in boxing?!…And don’t forget to give me a call about Ryan Garcia, because guess what, you f-ckin’ legally have to!”
