The collective eyebrows of the martial arts world escaped the news that former champion boxing promoter Oscar De La Hoya turned a comeback in the ring at the ripe age of 47.
Oscar has not fought since taking a one-sided knock from Manny Pacquiao in 2008, who mercifully finished in the 8th round with his corner in the towel. Following that fight, he went 8-5 over the current millennium, and his slide was about what you would expect a fighter to lose in speed in the ring with age. So if he was too slow to hang with the top at 36 when he retired, why would he come back thinking he is faster at 47?
UFC President Dana White has a theory.
“Cocaine is not cheap,” White said after his UFC at ESPN 15 event on Saturday night. “It’s expensive. You have to make money.”
White and De La Hoya have been on bad terms since Oscar tried to organize a boycott among boxing purists of 2017 Mayweather vs. McGregor bout, called it a circus that would destroy the integrity of boxing (a claim that makes my eyes still so far back in my head I can see my brain). An extra ton of salt was thrown over business in 2018 when De La Hoya White’s buddy Chuck Liddell retired to fight for the third time against Tito Ortiz. White famously recalled Chuck in 2009 and said, ‘I love him. I love his health, and it’s over, man. It’s over.”
Not only did Oscar drop a busted Liddell to the still-competitive Ortiz, he promoted his foray into “Golden Boy MMA” as an opportunity for fighters to finally make a fair cut from PPV revenue. We’m sure White fell in love with Oscar at SportsCenter picking up the pathetic 18% of the gross that goes into fighting ghosts. Unfortunately, ‘big business workers’ (ahem, independent contractors) are not exactly exploiting news these days, so these attacks, like the Liddell-Ortiz 3 PPV, are hardly generating interest.
That has not stopped Dana and Oscar from continuing to throw hill makers at each other in the press every chance they get. We scored this round 10-8 Dana.
