Oscar De La Hoya says Eddie Hearn had absolutely nothing to do with the making of that blockbuster Devin Haney vs Ryan Garcia superfight coming up later this year.
Haney (31-0) and Garcia (24-1) will lock horns at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 20 (live on DAZN) with the WBC world super-lightweight title on the line.
Hearn was at the press conference to officially announce the fight on Monday, and has said his Matchroom organisation had a matching right with Haney for the fight, but chose not to exercise it for the good of the sport, and ‘for some financial benefit’. He said he DOES have a financial involvement.
De La Hoya on Hearn
De La Hoya though had a slightly view when he spoke to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, claiming: “No, zero, Eddie Hearn had nothing to do with this fight. This is a Golden Boy. See Eddie Hearn is partners with DAZN USA, so I’m sure they’re throwing a few crumbs at him. I have no ego. Ego is not my amigo.”
When asked if Hearn would be at that press conference to announce the fight in NYC, ‘The Golden Boy’ said: “Yeah, I think so. The DAZN people called me up, saying ‘hey, let him up there’. I was like ‘what the fuck’s he gonna be up there for, isn’t it uncomfortable for him to put his face there, he had nothing to do with it’.”
While making it clear what he believes is Hearn’s involvement (or lack of) in the fight, De La Hoya says this is not about ego, or him.
‘Ego is not my amigo’ – De La Hoya
“At this point of my life, of being a promoter now for 22 years, I just want to make fights, that’s it,” he said.
“I’m happy to be on stage, and promoting. But I think what fighters don’t understand, or what the public, the world doesn’t understand, there’s a lot that goes behind the promotion. There’s a lot of strategy, a lot of legwork that has to be done
“Everybody on the ground, to put an event together. The press conferences, the storyline, there’s so much. You just don’t show up and ‘wow, oh my gosh, who did all this? let’s collect our paycheck’. No, there’s a lot that goes behind it.”