LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya said his lobbying last week for fighters to be protected under federal regulations that exist under the Ali Act was “very unfortunate, like walking into a buzzsaw.”
Only three U.S. senators – two of whom received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Zuffa’s Dana White – appeared at a committee session where De La Hoya, fighter Nico Ali Walsh (Muhammad Ali’s grandson) and White’s business partner Nick Khan spoke.
“I have never been part of anything so corrupt in my life,” said Golden Boy Promotions chairman and CEO De La Hoya on his “Clapback Thursday” social media episode, as the Senate is expected to forward the bill to White’s close friend President Trump to sign.
The appearance reinforced something deep in De La Hoya.
As the old Ali Act crumbles into the new version crafted by Khan’s Zuffa Boxing, it’s officially time to take the loss over that cause.
And the best response is to commit to a business strategy that will both beat back the enriched new challenger Zuffa and attract the lion’s share of boxers.
De La Hoya’s commitment is one his fellow “old guard” promoters are increasingly gravitating to in the sport’s changing business landscape.
It’s called co-promotion.
In Saturday’s unified cruiserweight title defense by De La Hoya-promoted champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez versus Premier Boxing Champions’ WBC light heavyweight titleholder David Benavidez, longtime adversaries are working together to both beat back their new competitor and take their businesses to new heights.
“The fighter will absolutely realize who’s right and who’s wrong,” De La Hoya said. “The fighter will realize this side of the street is the better side.”
Backed by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, Zuffa Boxing is further funded by a new five-year, $100 million annual deal in place with streaming partner Paramount+.
Zuffa has begun landing champions and elite contenders including cruiserweight Jai Opetaia, junior welterweight Richardson Hitchins, super middleweight Edgar Berlanga and welterweight Conor Benn.
Zuffa vows to make a far greater splash, with UFC CEO/President White labeling De La Hoya, PBC’s Al Haymon and Top Rank’s Bob Arum “babies” who will be washed away by the new company.
Yet as Zuffa seeks to expand beyond a string of lesser-tier cards at the UFC’s Meta Apex in Las Vegas with a June 6 card in the UK, promising bigger shows to come, the sport’s existing power brokers are banking on the notion that there is power in numbers.
PBC is looking for Benavidez, 29, to supplant Saudi-supported Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as the new face of Cinco de Mayo. Phoenix’s Benavidez, 31-0 (25 KOs), is moving up 25 pounds to take on the stout challenge of Golden Boy’s Ramirez, 48-1 (30 KOs), who has never been knocked down and will likely outweigh Benavidez by 15 pounds on fight night.
De La Hoya, after recently extending his company’s streaming deal with DAZN, is displaying a willingness to work with new DAZN promoter Top Rank and existing UK-based promoters Matchroom and Queensberry. He plans to place his most decorated fighters in co-promoted events.
“I’m grateful that with promoters like PBC, Top Rank and Matchroom, we can all make fights together, with most of us under the same umbrella at DAZN,” De La Hoya said. “It’s easier to make these kinds of fights happen.”
Easier now because it may be essential.
Zuffa’s fellow companies under TKO Group Holdings are the UFC and WWE, the dominant players in the respective worlds of mixed martial arts and pro wrestling.
“They want to monopolize boxing,” De La Hoya said on “Clapback Thursday.” “You have a choice of … rules and fair rankings or … a dictatorship.”
As impassioned as De La Hoya’s position is, the lead promoter for PBC, TGB’s Tom Brown, reminded that it was just more than a decade ago that the boxing industry saw the well-funded PBC as the business threatening a takeover.
Powerful manager Haymon oversaw an exodus of talent from the Golden Boy stable to his own, leading to years of bitterness between the companies before they began to work together, including the highly lucrative 2023 battle between PBC’s Gervonta “Tank” Davis and Golden Boy’s Ryan Garcia.
“We’ve had a great relationship with Golden Boy. We’ve come together and put on the best events – Garcia versus Tank was a wild success, off the charts,” Brown said. “Then we came together for the last Cinco de Mayo event in Las Vegas – Canelo Alvarez versus Jaime Munguia [in 2024], again a huge weekend.
“Oscar and [Golden Boy President] Eric [Gomez] are very easy to work with. They want to make the best fights. Oscar always said that in his entire career: We trust them, have respect for them and we have a lot in common in the matchmaking department.”
They also each possess large stables of fighters who they plan to retain by offering major, lucrative, world title bouts that are easier to make by expanding ties with fellow promoters and the four sanctioning bodies.
White has said Zuffa Boxing would prefer not to work with other promoters or the sanctioning bodies, rewriting the Ali Act to allow Zuffa to rank and award its own belt to fighters, as is done in the UFC.
As the Golden Boy-PBC union hogs boxing headlines this week, Zuffa deployed one of its broadcasters, Mark Kriegel, to contrast the business models.
“At best, [the sanctioning bodies] are hacks. At worst, they’re corrupt,” Kriegel said on veteran boxing reporter Chris Mannix’s podcast.
In response to that comment, WBO President Gustavo Olivieri wrote on X: "Hey @MarkKriegel if you have any evidence (direct or circumstantial) against any WBO officials, please contact immediately the FBI. Put your actions behind your words."
Kriegel also bashed De La Hoya for arguing for Ali Act transparency while being engaged in a lawsuit with unbeaten junior middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jnr and after previous legal beefs with Garcia and Alvarez.
“I mean, the idea that Oscar has suddenly become an advocate for full disclosure, to me, is astonishing,” Kriegel said to Mannix.
De La Hoya said he “absolutely, 1,000 per cent” is committed to the co-promotion response to Zuffa Boxing’s efforts, emphasizing the benefits of his strategy to as many boxers as possible.
“Now it’s: ‘Do you want to fight for the unicorn Zuffa belt or continue making history on this side of the street?’” De La Hoya said.
Brown was less defiant toward Zuffa, taking an unintended jab at them in the process when asked if PBC would work with them.
“I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. If they’re willing to work with the sanctioning bodies … because we’ve got so many champions,” Brown said. “You just never know what they’re going to bring to us. I’m kind of sitting back and watching.”
Brown said the established promoters have not huddled to orchestrate a co-promotion strategy to pummel Zuffa Boxing.
“There hasn’t been anything like that,” Brown said. “Any promoter will tell you, it’s always easier to do an in-house fight. It’s easier to get it done. With us having the biggest stable, it’s easier for us to do that. But we’re willing to work with anyone.”
Increasingly, PBC has shrewdly placed its fighters in high-profile cards promoted by others. Featherweight Brandon Figueroa went to England to wrest a title from Queensberry’s Nick Ball. Carlos Adames defended his middleweight belt against Matchroom’s Austin “Ammo” Williams after gaining a draw in Saudi Arabia versus Alalshikh’s favorite, Hamzah Sheeraz.
When Top Rank was operating without a television deal, Matchroom invited 130lbs titleholder Emanuel Navarrete over for a highly successful unification victory in Phoenix and PBC brought another Top Rank junior lightweight titlist, O’Shaquie Foster, to defend his belt against Stephen Fulton.
PBC also has David Morrell Jnr and Alberto Puello in line for high-profile bouts on Queensberry and Matchroom cards.
“People give us a bad rap, but we’re always doing it,” Brown said.
He said being called “babies” by White hasn’t hurt feelings.
“People always talked about us that way, and Al would say, ‘Let’s stay in our lane, do our thing,’ and you’ve never heard anyone from PBC’s side talk like that about another promoter,” Brown said. “We’re always here – to help on short notice, ready to get other guys in the ring if we’ve got a spot.”
Top Rank’s Foster is going to defend his junior lightweight belt against Matchroom’s Raymond Ford. PBC’s Lamont Roach Jnr is in talks to meet Golden Boy lightweight William Zepeda.
As De La Hoya says it’s good for business, Brown says it’s good for the sport.
Benavidez has the potential Saturday to capture a breakthrough victory that every promoter would want.
“He’s the challenger, but if you look at the poster, see what side he’s on,” Brown said, noting the left side typically reserved for champions. “He’s got that ‘it’ factor, the work ethic, the drive.”
With Alvarez attending the fight after performing in nearly every early May fight since 2015, Brown said, “From Saturday night, this will be David Benavidez’s day.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
