By: Sean Crose
Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather have never been enormous fans of one another. Going back to the time even before the superfight the two men engaged in over fifteen years ago, there was tension, if not outright hostility, between the two. Mayweather, who ended up winning the close 2007 battle, was young and brash at the time, while De La Hoya was still arguably the biggest star in the sport. Now, emotions are flaring up once more, at least on the part of De La Hoya. For De La Hoya feels that Mayweather is now getting between he and his protégée, Ryan Garcia.
While it’s true De La Hoya’s relationship with Garcia, his star fighter, has taken a rough turn over the past several months, it was surprising to see images of Garcia going for a night run with Mayweather over the past few days. Since that time, Garcia has said that he no longer wants to fight the red hot Devin Haney next, as he himself had indicated he would, opting instead to target the exciting but seemingly limited Roland Romero. Being Garcia’s promoter, De La Hoya is clearly not impressed. In fact, he’s been angry enough to go public.
“Pre run with Floyd = Ryan wants Haney.” De La Hoya posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “Post run with Floyd = Ryan wants Rolly.” But that was just the start of things. “Golden Boy has worked with Ryan Garcia since he turned pro,” De La Hoya continued, “and together have made him the biggest draw in boxing. We will make his fight with Rolly into a huge event, as we always do.” Yet De La Hoya wasn’t done, saving the most notable portion of his post for last. “Floyd, if you want to give Ryan the secret to defense in the ring, that’s great,” he stated. “Other than that, if you are still a promoter like it says here, f— off.”
While both De La Hoya and Mayweather are rightly regarded as all time great fighters, they are both also successful promoters. In other words, the men are arguably still competitors. And Garcia, a popular, hard hitting Californian with the ability to draw in casual fans, is one of the most famous fighters in the world at the moment. While he doesn’t appear to possess the generation defining talent that De La Hoya and Mayweather once did, Garcia remains an extremely lucrative asset to any banner he fights under.
