There were once good friends - but now it appears that UFC President Dana White and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya are better enemies.

Their rift first began a few months ago, when White's company finalized a deal for UFC superstar Conor McGregor to make his professional boxing debut against a returning Floyd Mayweather Jr. on August 26th on Showtime Pay-Per-View.

There was an obvious problem right off the bat, May-Mac was taking place three weeks prior to Golden Boy's signature event of 2017 - with Canelo Alvarez challenging middleweight king Gennady Golovkin on September 16th on HBO Pay-Per-View.

To make matters worse, both pay-per-view events were taking place at the same venue - the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

De La Hoya was furious with the scheduling of unforeseen scheduling of Mayweather-McGregor, as the high profile event would obviously have some effect on Canelo-Golovkin - a fight which Golden Boy had been working on since early 2016.

And it did have an effect, as Mayweather-McGregor dominated the headlines and TV spots. 

De La Hoya trashed Mayweather-McGregor - penning an open letter that urged fans to boycott the show. The Golden CEO even took to social media - giving a big "f* you" to the event.

So obviously it was shocking to many, when a few weeks ago De La Hoya revealed on a radio show that he's been training for months for a potential ring return - against McGregor.

When White was first advised of De La Hoya's statements, he was also in shock.

“The nuttiest whack job on earth,” White said to The Jim Rome Show.

“This guy, I don’t know if this guy is hitting the yayo and the booze again, or what his deal is, but this guy is on another planet. I have zero respect for this guy.”

“Mayweather vs McGregor was a complete disrespect to the sport of boxing, it was disgusting, He was ‘f*** you’ and all this stuff on Twitter like a complete nut. But him versus Conor McGregor is a good idea. This guy is a complete nut.”