Getty UFC President Dana White attends the press conference after the UFC Fight Night event.
UFC president Dana White has made it clear that he will not be friends with boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya ever again.
Former boxing world champion De La Hoya shared a fierce rivalry with White. Although he was initially friends with White during the early days of promoting the UFC, things turned sour quickly once De La Hoya became a boxing promoter and eventually even tried his hand at mixed martial arts.
During a fan Q&A with GQ Sports, White responded to a question asking if he would partner with De La Hoya following an apology.
“I feel like De La Hoya’s apology was sincere, but there’s no way that he and I can ever be friends again,” White said (ht MMA Fighting). “He and I were actually friends. I used to go to his fights. I used to watch his fights. I used to promote his fights.
“That guy did way too much damage for us to ever be friends again. I appreciate his apology. I get it. We’re cool, but we’re never going to be that cool.”
White Wants To Stay Away From Boxing Promotion
Considering the success White managed to achieve with the UFC, adding a boxing promotion does not seem to be the worst idea. He co-promoted the second highest selling pay-per-view of all time along with boxing Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather who took on Conor McGregor in a crossover bout.
White indicated his desire to promote boxing matches in the past. However, it would appear that he keeps running into issues that restrict it from happening.
“Every time I start to go down the road to get involved in boxing, I go, ‘Have I lost my f****** mind? Am I crazy? Why would I ever want to get involved in this corrupt, insane, f***** up sport?’
“And then I jump out for a while and then I start to think about it again. Literally just started thinking about it a month ago, got on the phone with a couple boxing guys, hung up the phone and said, ‘Have I lost my f****** mind again? Why would I want to be in business with any of these guys?’”
De La Hoya Fired Shots at White During His MMA Event
White was not thrilled to hear that De La Hoya would be getting into promoting MMA. What’s worse was that he secured a matchup between two iconic former UFC champions, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
While promoting the event, De La Hoya took aim at White for underpaying fighters, tweeting: “That’s all you got @danawhite? You’re accusing me of FAKING a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans to avoid a fight?? You pathetic piece of shit you’ve never even laced up the gloves. And you completely ignored my original point I made about UNDERPAYING YOUR FIGHTERS.”
That’s all you got @danawhite ? You’re accusing me of FAKING a virus that killed almost 700,000 Americans to avoid a fight?? You pathetic piece of shit you’ve never even laced up the gloves. And you completely ignored my original point I made about UNDERPAYING YOUR FIGHTERS
De La Hoya had issued an apology in April, calling for White and himself to talk things through. He stated that he would “love to patch things up” if he was wrong. But if White’s comments are any indication, it seems unlikely that we would be seeing these two work together on a project.