By Edward Chaykovsky
Just when you thought their war of words was over, retired pound-of-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. lashed out at Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya.
If you thought it was personal before, Mayweather just turned up the heat and made it very personal.
The two retired fighters have never gotten along. De La Hoya was trained for years by Mayweather's father, Floyd Mayweather Sr. - and during that period Floyd and his dad rarely spoke.
After their record breaking fight in 2007, where Mayweather won a close twelve round split decision, the tension appeared to die down.
While Mayweather was self-promoted and technically a free agent, De La Hoya's company handled the leg work for most of his pay-per-view events from 2007 until 2014. That business relationship started falling apart after Mayweather's close friend, Richard Schaefer, resigned from his CEO position at Golden Boy in June of 2014.
Due to the legal battle between De La Hoya and Schaefer (which the two sides settled in January 2015), Mayweather took Schaefer side and began to take repeated shots at De La Hoya in various interviews.
Even before that, there was always some banter flying and forth - as most of Mayweather's opponents since 2007 have been promoted by Golden Boy. And De La Hoya would obviously back his fighter to win, and Mayweather would usually slam De La Hoya for his predictions.
The friction came back last December, when De La Hoya wrote an open letter for Playboy Magazine and slammed Mayweather's career and business practices. Mayweather would return fire.
Everything seemed to die down after De La Hoya did a video interview with BoxingScene.com and called for a truce, pledging to work side by side with Mayweather to make the best fights possible.
It seems Mayweather is not looking for a truce, because in one swoop he attacked De La Hoya for his past struggles with substance abuse and also brought up the old scandal where De La Hoya was photographed in women's lingerie.
“It’s good to work with guys like Richard Schaefer and Al Haymon, guys that’s drug free, guys that wear suits, guys that dress like men,” Mayweather told Fighthype.com. “Of course, you know I’m sending shots at Oscar De La Hoya. I’m always sending shots at him because I don’t respect a man that dress in drag.”
