Oscar De La Hoya’s “Clapback Thursday” went on a brief hiatus as the promoter and Hall of Fame fighter waited for boxing events to inspire a return episode.
Finding his muse in Canelo Alvarez, his trainer Eddy Reynoso, rival promoter Dana White and the boxing media, De La Hoya let rip a six-plus minute return show Thursday, lighting into the parties and declaring, “No one will ever put a muzzle on me.”
In reference to four fighters submitting positive tests for PEDs while training under Reynoso – six if you count Ryan Garcia and Luis Nery’s positives outside the camp – De La Hoya repeated suspicions he first aired to reporters March 30 at his Golden Boy Promotions card in Las Vegas.
Wondering why the Reynoso link hasn’t resulted since in a published investigation of the camp, De La Hoya said, “Many members of the boxing media have been paid off by certain people and essentially muzzled.
“Six fighters, and nobody’s investigating this? This doesn’t seem suspicious, or out of the ordinary to you? Doesn’t this warrant an investigation of Eddy’s camps?”
De La Hoya noted that he’s promoted the latest positive fighter, former 154lbs champion Jaime Munguia of Tijuana for a decade, “and he tested clean up until his fight with Eddy in Riyadh [Saudi Arabia].
“How is it ethical that you have six fighters testing dirty from the same camp, and we don’t have questions? They [reporters] crucified Ryan Garcia every fucking day for a year over a tiny bit of Ostarine. So, why so quiet now? I’m so disappointed. I didn’t realize you guys could be bought so easily.”
De La Hoya then turned to the story he’s seeing frequent mention of: the September 13 undisputed super-middleweight title fight between champion Alvarez and unbeaten four-division champion Terence Crawford in Las Vegas.
“The biggest fight of the decade … to a purist and a fighter, it’s laughable,” De La Hoya said. “You have Crawford jumping up two weight classes [at age 37, after more than a one-year layoff] to fight Canelo, a natural light-heavyweight. Crawford, who went life-and-death with [former WBA 154lbs champion Israil] Madrimov. What do you think Canelo will do with him? Run him out of the ring.”
De La Hoya, of course, formerly promoted Alvarez from 2010 to 2019, when they fell out over finances.
The fact that UFC CEO White is promoting his first boxing match in the bout inspired De La Hoya to label his rival the “trust-fund baby of boxing,” because White has no stable of boxers, “didn’t negotiate shit and is being handed this fight on a silver platter and being called a promoter.”
De La Hoya claimed he’s heard Alvarez-Crawford will be streamed by Netflix during afternoon hours, so the UFC Noche event can be viewed by combat sports fans that night.
Alvarez moved his traditional Cinco de Mayo weekend card May 3 out of Las Vegas to Saudi Arabia.
“Canelo will fight anytime, anywhere he’s told because he doesn’t give a fuck – about the fans, about tradition, the Mexican weekend,” De La Hoya said. “This whole thing’s a shit-show. Aren’t you embarrassed?”
Perhaps most telling, De La Hoya by informing White he’s entering a different business model loaded with competitors after dominating the MMA landscape.
“Don’t think of bringing your pathetic pay scale to boxing. These fighters won’t go for it,” De La Hoya said in comments directed to White and his new boxing promotion, TKO. “The truth is, they have no fighters … I’ve never been happier to trade calls with [fellow boxing promoters] Eddie Hearn and Al Haymon, because guess what?
“We aren’t going anywhere.”
With that, De La Hoya clapped his session closed.