‘It’s not fair’: De La Hoya says poor performances a disservice to organizers

Oscar De La Hoya gives his immediate reaction to a weekend of terrible fights.

Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya had to see his biggest star Ryan Garcia take an unexpected loss over the weekend in a dismal performance against Rolando Romero. In combination with several other awful fights this weekend, De La Hoya breaks away from his Caribbean vacation to give his thoughts on what’s transpired.

“I’m here in the Bahamas, disrupting my vacation, because I just have to speak on the — of the 11 fights that I just saw, with no knockouts,” De La Hoya said. “I mean, look, let’s give credit where it’s due. I think Rolly, congratulations. You came out and fought, had a great win. I’m happy for you, really am. You’re a nice kid.

“Teofimo is the only one that probably came out and tried to entertain the fans with what he had to work with. And I feel bad for Turki, I really do. He’s paying all this money to the fighters to turn out and fight, and give the fight fans what they deserve. And those are great fights — show up. Not just dancing around like Bill Haney and Devin Haney.

“I mean, my gosh, he was tagged a couple times by Ramirez and he just gets on his bicycle and just starts running for his life. Jesus. Anyway, he’s done.

“Canelo — Jesus, lord. Come on. You’re getting paid all this money to fight against a runner, who we all knew was going to run, a Cuban style. You chose him and now you say you hate fighting runners. Well, don’t fight runners. We all know who we want to see you in against. That’s Benavidez. Go against Benavidez, fight Benavidez. He won’t run. What’s wrong with that? It’s a good fight. But it’s sad. It starts from the top, too.

“When you’re fighting for the money and not legacy, every young fighter just follows that pattern and it’s not fair. It’s not fair to the organizers, to the people who are putting up the money, the promoters.” [Oscar gets an off-screen reminder to mention ‘the fans’]. “The fans, especially! The fans want to see good fights, let’s go!

“It’s tee’d up for everybody. Turki’s bringing out his wallet and paying everybody and the least we can give him is good fights. Go out there and fight. Anyway, I had to do this improved clap back. I’m just frustrated. I’m frustrated but, hey, we got Crawford vs Canelo. I’m looking forward to it — even though they're both almost 40 — I’m looking forward. It's a good matchup. But just show up and fight.”