By Sean Nam
September 12, 2022
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Oscar De La Hoya isn’t entirely confident that cross promotional fights with Premier Boxing Champions can be made—through no fault of his own, the promoter said.
In a recent interview, the founder and head of Golden Boy Promotions expressed some frustration with the matchmaking process involved with some of his fighters, and he pinned the blame squarely on PBC’s creator, Al Haymon.
De La Hoya promotes popular lightweight contender Ryan Garcia and former 154-pound titlist and current middleweight contender Jaime Munguia, among others. Both Garcia and Munguia stand to be in some great fights in their respective divisions, but some of their key opponents are aligned with rival outfit PBC, which, like Golden Boy, has its own exclusive broadcasting partnerships. Golden Boy has an output deal with DAZN, and PBC has separate ones with Showtime and Fox. Garcia has long been mentioned in tandem with Gervonta Davis, the Baltimore puncher who is backed by Haymon’s PBC, while Munguia has been mentioned along with middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, another Haymon client.
In a recent Instagram live session, De La Hoya talked about making a mouthwatering matchup between Garcia and Davis. The two fighters have cropped up again in the headlines recently, as they both sent out tweets suggesting that actual negotiations to get them to face each other by the end of the year were ongoing.
De La Hoya acknowledged that while he would “try” to make the best possible fights for his fighters, he said that his efforts are impeded by Haymon. De La Hoya has repeatedly characterized Haymon as an obstructionist over the years and most recently said Haymon was to blame for their inability to strike a deal for a Charlo-Munguia fight. Haymon, who famously does not speak to the media, used to work closely with De La Hoya years ago, before they had a bitter falling out in 2014.
“Any Al Haymon guy is going to be a problem to make [a fight] because of Al Haymon,” De La Hoya said. “But I’m gonna try and make the best fights possible. I’m bringing you guys [Dmityr] Bivol versus ‘Zurdo’ [Ramirez] so that’s going to be exciting. I’m working on Jaime Munguia. Another one. Jaime Munguia wants to fight [Jermall] Charlo.
“Again, Al Haymon, you know. And it’s sad, because — it’s sad — I’m sure Charlo wants to fight the very best. All these fighters want to fight the best, man, but this is the truth, God honest truth.”
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