Oscar De La Hoya is ready to get scrappy with Dana White and Zuffa Boxing.
Though they were once on good terms, over the past several years, De La Hoya and White have become bitter enemies, a dynamic that only worsened after White finally moved into boxing with Zuffa Boxing earlier this year. And De La Hoya continues to ratchet up the animosity.
This past weekend, Jai Opetaia captured the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title when he won a unanimous decision over Brandon Glanton in Las Vegas. Unfortunately for Opetaia, the bout also cost him his IBF title, as the sanctioning body stripped him of its belt for violating one of the IBF’s bylaws around fighting for unsanctioned titles. Essentially, the IBF is in a dispute with Zuffa Boxing, and Opetaia has paid the price, which De La Hoya could not help but relish.
“I have a lot to vent about this week and a lot of truth to spill,” De La Hoya said on his Instagram. “So, Jai Opetaia fought over the weekend, for what he thought would be an IBF title, only to find out at the press conference that he was lied to by none other than Uncle f*ckin’ Fester [Dana White] and Zuffa. So, let me explain.
“So, we all know that the Zuffa belt is like a participation trophy that’s given to a nine-year-old at the end of a soccer game. It has the significance of a hemorrhoid on my f*ckin’ ass. And that’s all they agreed it would be, in order to get the IBF to participate in the Opetaia fight. Until last week at the press conference, when Fester and his friends surprised everyone and announced the Zuffa belt as a world title belt. … After that, the sanction was pulled. Zuffa had no intention of following the IBF rules and used that deception to humiliate them. So they said, ‘F*ck this,’ and they pulled out! Zuffa lied to everyone the entire time, and poor Jai Opetaia suffered because of it.
“So, instead of fighting for a belt that he loves, Jai was stuck fighting for absolutely nothing against a guy who had zero championship experience. And Jai was obviously disappointed. … Of course, he wants to fight for all the belts, every fighter does. Nobody wants to fight for the piece of shit Zuffa belt they are trying to push on us. And fighters want to fight the very best in the world. His opponent, Brandon Glanton, was a plant by The Ring, who ranked him No. 10 in the world in their made-up rankings. He had never even fought a championship round in his entire life.”
De La Hoya didn’t stop there, though. The former boxing champion and current Golden Boy promoter encouraged Opetaia to learn from this mistake and get out of working with Zuffa Boxing, even tying everything in with Ronda Rousey’s comments about the UFC earlier this week.
“Jai, wake up before they ruin your career, brother,” De La Hoya said. “Fester is using you as a tool in all of this. Get the f*ck out of there. All these guys do is lie. …
“[Dana White] don’t give a f-ck about the fighters, just like you never gave a f*ck about UFC fighters, which Ronda Rousey exposed on Monday. … With TKO, you’re a f*cking number and line. You aren’t a human being. You contribute to their bottom line, and that’s all. You sign with Zuffa, and you’ll be tricked into a bunch of shit just like Jai Opetaia was. Nothing is ever what it seems with them.”
While this is certainly nothing new for Dana White, it does seem that the boxing establishment is now a little more full-throated in challenging the TKO push into boxing than it was earlier this year when White declared that the shift into boxing promotion was “like beating up babies.”
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