UFC president Dana White‘s disdain for boxing legend turned promoter Oscar De La Hoya has been well documented over the years. Following UFC 266 on Saturday, the two engaged in a verbal sparring session via social media when De La Hoya criticized White and UFC over fighter pay.
On Monday, their social media war of words escalated. On Tuesday, following Dana White’s Contender Series event at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, White ripped into De La Hoya calling him a “lying, two-faced, hypocritical sack of shit.”
“The only reason I’m telling you this is because he’s a lying, two-faced, hypocritical sack of shit, and I hate him so much that I love to prove that he’s a lying, hypocritical, two-faced, piece of shit. I guess we’ll start with when he started an MMA event,” White said during the DWCS 5 post-fight press conference.
De La Hoya’s fight promotion, Golden Boy, promoted a mixed martial arts event in November 2018 that was headlined by former UFC light heavyweight champions Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell in a trilogy fight, a fight that White thinks should have never happened.
“All the former UFC fighters who were on his card made more in their last (UFC) bout than they did in his event. Most of them made more in multiple, or all of their UFC bouts. 17 of the 22 fighters got less than the starting compensation in the UFC, guys who fought on his MMA card,” White said.
“Where I’m going with this is this asshole, every time he opens his mouth acts like, ‘oh you’re not paying your fighters. Why are the fighters not being paid?’ And he acts like when he put on an event like he pays more than we do, or something,” White said. “12 of the 22 (former UFC) fighters got compensated less than what we pay kids on the Contender Series on that MMA event.”
Part of Golden Boy’s promotion of their MMA event was putting out the narrative that the former UFC fighters competing on the fight card would get paid more than they ever have. It’s a narrative adopted by Jake Paul and Triller.
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“Remember what the big narrative for that one was? Chuck and Tito were going to make more than they’ve made,” said the UFC president. “The last time Chuck Liddell made less than $250,000 in the UFC was in August of 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 were were still $40 million in debt in the hole. We were $40 million upside down. After those dates came The Ultimate Fighter and everything started to change and grow.”
White came to the press conference equipped with talking points. Some were handed out to the media. He continued to shine a light on De La Hoya’s fighter pay.
“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, 10 times more than what Oscar paid him,” White said. “Tito Ortiz won one of his last nine fights. Tito Ortiz, in his last nine fights (in the UFC) won one. Me made 12 times in the UFC for his last fight what Oscar paid him… This was the last fight on their contracts after Tito won one of his last nine and Chuck had lost five of his last six. So there’s another f**king lie from Oscar De La Hoya.”
One of the papers handed out to the media was the fighter pay for a Golden Boy promoted boxing event from June of this year.
“I could have brought 30 of these. I brought one because it’s June 9, 2021. This was a fight that just happened in June. It’s a Golden Boy promotions fight that his dickhead put on,” White said. “There were nine fights, 18 fighters. The total purses paid for every fight was $36,500 total. The average purse per fighter was $2,000 on a Golden Boy-De La Hoya card.”
In De La Hoya’s social media attack on White following UFC 266, he directly addressed UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who successfully defended his title against Brian Ortega in the main event. White quickly responded.
“Hey [Alexander Volkanovski] you just won a brutal battle for UFC and made 1/20 of what you’re worth. [Dana White] have some f**king respect for yourself and these fighters and pay these warriors what they deserve,” Tweeted De La Hoya.
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STFU U crack head. Faking that u had Covid and robbing me of watching u get KTFO by @vitorbelfort you should win an academy award for your hospital performance.
— danawhite (@danawhite) September 26, 2021
“He’s concerned about Alexander Volkanovski. Before we pay one dollar in f**king purse money, Volkanovski got paid more to wear his UFC Venom kit than Oscar De La Hoya paid his entire f**king fight card,” an animated White said. “To walk out with the Venom fight kit on, he was paid more than Oscar paid the entire f**king fight card.”