Golden Boy’s chairman says Ryan Garcia’s next fight and the exclusion of leading U.S. promoters point to Zuffa’s growing influence in boxing
Oscar De La Hoya believes Turki Alalshikh’s leadership role with Zuffa is already influencing major boxing decisions, from Ryan Garcia’s next opponent to who gets invited into the sport’s biggest meetings. The Golden Boy chairman says those moves are changing boxing’s balance of power, although Turki has not publicly linked the decisions.
“Because Turki owns Zuffa and wants to help them out, he picked Conor Benn,” De La Hoya said in a video posted to social media, referring to reports linking Ryan Garcia to Benn on September 12 in Las Vegas.
De La Hoya said Golden Boy has not been contacted about making Garcia-Benn, even though Ryan remains under contract with the company.
“I have yet to be approached about making this fight,” De La Hoya said. “We signed a two-fight deal for Ryan with the Saudis last year. The first fight was with Barrios, and apparently the Saudis have chosen Conor Benn to be Ryan’s next opponent.”
He then tied the Ryan-Benn situation to the recent peace meeting, saying Turki left out the three biggest U.S.-based promotional power brokers.
“It’s why you wanted to call a peace meeting with Frank [Warren] and Eddie [Hearn] over a war that you started,” De La Hoya said. “And by the way, you left me, Al Haymon and Bob Arum out of your peace meeting. And guess what? We control the U.S. market.”
De La Hoya’s argument is that Zuffa’s boxing push is being prioritized over the established American promoters who still control major fighters, networks and relationships in the U.S. market. He also questioned whether Turki can make major fights in America without involving those promoters.
“You can’t just do whatever you want here in America. There are laws and legally binding contracts,” De La Hoya said. “Turki and Sela, you can’t call up any fighter you want and make a fight. You can’t put fights on any network you want.”
Turki has not publicly connected his Zuffa position to the Ryan-Benn talks or the guest list for the peace meeting. De La Hoya is giving his interpretation of why he, Haymon and Arum were left out, and readers can decide whether his argument holds up.
