Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya believes he deserves a lot of credit for building Canelo Alvarez, his recently departed signee, into the box office star he is today. To the extent that De La Hoya has been the promoter for Alvarez in every major fight of his career, that claim is difficult to dispute.

He also believes he deserves credit for having “built” the careers of numerous Premier Boxing Champions fighters, including Deontay Wilder, Errol Spence Jr., the Charlo twins, and Leo Santa Cruz to name just a few. That claim, however, might be a bit harder to swallow, depending on your definition of the operative word.  

“I built them,” De La Hoya said on a recent episode of the 3 Knockdown Rule.

De La Hoya was referencing the fact that he used to promote a slew of current PBC boxers before relinquishing their promotional rights to their manager and PBC architect Al Haymon in a bitter settlement in 2015. The move allowed Haymon to pursue a timebuy strategy with multiple networks, while Golden Boy salvaged the remains of a gutted roster. The PBC, which is thought to have more than 200 fighters aligned with the firm, currently has exclusive output deals with Fox and Showtime. 

De La Hoya also took the time to excoriate the PBC on a whole raft of issues, including its matchmaking sensibility.

“On the other side of the street (PBC) you have a bunch of fighters that just don’t want to fight and it’s not because of them it’s because of who is controlling the ship there,” De La Hoya said.  

“The PBC group has their own agenda,” De La Hoya continued. “I don’t know what that agenda is because they keep losing money. Literally. A perfect example if the Leo Santa Cruz and Gervonta Davis fight. And before that they lost money somewhere else and somewhere else. I don’t know how long they can keep it up. It’s hurting the sport. We can make so many good fights together. And we’ve done it together, with Fox and ESPN working together (on Wilder-Fury II). We should do it more often.

“(Top Rank head) Bob Arum loves making fights. But we’ve worked with every single promoter out there and have had no issues whatsoever. The only issues that we’ve had is with PBC for some reason. And I don’t dislike them.”

With the departure of Alvarez, Golden Boy Promotions arguably has never found itself on shakier ground. The company still promotes the likes of Vergil Ortiz, Jaime Munguia, and rising star Ryan Garcia, in addition to some 70-odd fighters, and reportedly still has an output deal with streaming platform DAZN. Yet De La Hoya maintained that the future for his company remained bright, something he cannot say for the PBC.

“What I’m saying is that, yeah, Leo Santa Cruz, Danny Garcia…What’s going to happen is PBC is relying on the champions they have now but what happens when the champions get old and they retire,” De La Hoya said. “They don’t have the next wave because they don’t know how to build. So that’s maybe a ship that sails away and they try to do great but they just couldn’t.” 

Reached for comment, PBC spokesperson Timothy Smith had this to say:

“Errol Spence Jr. will be defending his unified welterweight title on Saturday, December 5 before his hometown fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on FOX Sports and PBC PPV. It will be his third PPV fight. We’re busy handling things for the PBC and the boxers who appear on our platforms on FOX Sports and Showtime. We wish everyone else well in their endeavors in the boxing business.’'