Promoter Lou DiBella threw a few verbal jabs at Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who blasted the upcoming crossover boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
Last Wednesday, it was officially announced that Mayweather would come out of retirement to fight McGregor, who had never had a professional boxing match.
The Showtime Pay-Per-View event is scheduled for August 26th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The problem, especially for De La Hoya, is that Mayweather-McGregor takes place only three weeks before Golden Boy's massive card - also taking place at T-Mobile - where superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will challenge WBA, WBC, IBO, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
Canelo-Golovkin is arguably the biggest fight in boxing since Mayweather faced Manny Pacquiao in May 2015.
De La Hoya fears that a one-sided pay-per-view main event like Mayweather-McGregor will have a negative affect on the expected pay-per-view business for Canelo-Golovkin and other future boxing events.
DiBella, during an interview with MMA reporter Ariel Helwani, was asked if he shared the same opinion as De La Hoya, who firmly believes Mayweather-McGregor is bad for the sport of boxing.
“I’m not against it. Oscar should shut the hell up. He should shut the f*** up. He walked out of some, like, club or whatever talking about the guy [McGregor] fighting Canelo Alvarez. All of a sudden... now the biggest name in boxing, the biggest guy, he’s over 40, he’s in retirement, coming out of retirement, he’s a superstar, Mayweather, is gonna fight Conor McGregor - probably the most charismatic, biggest self-promoter in the history of MMA, and it’s a mega event. It’s an event. It’s not a boxing match. It’s a freaking event. It’s a spectacle. I wanna see it," DiBella stated.
“Is [McGregor] gonna win? He’s not gonna f***ing win. But, it could be fun. But Oscar, holier than now Oscar, running around with the manifestos about how this is bad for boxing. Shut the f*** up."