Eddie Hearn roasted promoter Oscar De La Hoya in an interview, saying, “He’s lost all his fighters,” and his company, Golden Boy, is “Done.”
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Hearn was in a reactionary mode in response to De La Hoya’s Clap Back Thursdays this week, in which he gloated about his fighter, Anthony Joshua, being knocked out by Daniel Dubois last weekend and Devin Haney beefing with him in the crowd over his ticket issues.
De La Hoya states that Hearn doesn’t know how to build fighters, and that guys that signed with him will either lose or get injured. Hearn believes that De La Hoya is bitter and hurting inside because he’s lost Canelo Alvarez and Jaime Munguia, two of his top fighters.
He also points out that Ryan Garcia is out for the remainder of the year. Vergil Ortiz Jr’s recent fight against Serhii Bohachuk on August 10th didn’t sell many tickets at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Hearn noted that De La Hoya once again failed to take advantage of his Clap Back Thursdays to talk about his own fighters from Golden Boy to try to promote them. That would obviously be the logical thing to do rather than using the valuable time trashing other promoter and their fighters.
“He’s just a weird guy, but we all need weird in our lives. I don’t like people who pretend they’re so happy but are actually burning inside with this silly voice he’s put on,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to the Stomping Grounds, reacting to Oscar De La Hoya’s comments about him during his Clap Back Thursdays post.
“He’s lost all his fighters, and I think he’s hurting. Canelo is obviously gone. Jaime Munguia, he pretends that he hasn’t gone, but he’s gone to Top Rank. Vergil Ortiz, you saw his crowd against [Serhii] Bohachuk. Ryan Garcia is out for a year. Golden Boy is done.”
Canelo has been gone for a while now, but Ryan Garcia is now bringing in the best numbers. The New York State Athletic Commission suspended him until April 2025. Munguia just lost to Canelo, and it’s unclear whether he’ll ever be a star.
“He’s [De La Hoya] still a character. I don’t take it too seriously, either, about what he says,” said Hearn. “I just think he’s got a lot of demons, Oscar. I just hope he’s okay. When he says, ‘Look at AJ, he dropped. He doesn’t know how to build fighters.’ AJ is probably the best-built fighter out of any fighter in our generation. Oscar is Oscar. It’s another week of not talking about his fighters, who are all basically irrelevant.”
Joshua has brought in a lot of money to Matchroom and continues to do so if he’s matched carefully. It wouldn’t be a good idea to match him against Dubois or any other sluggers again. Joshua is too fragile in the chin department to fight sluggers at this late stage of his career.
“We met with His Excellency on Friday. I don’t think he’d be annoyed by me saying that he wants to see the rematch,” said Hearn about Turki Alalshikh wanting to see the Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois rematch.
Hearn should keep Joshua away from Dubois, and focus more on matching him against Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. Those are two guys that don’t punch hard, and are still winnable fights for Joshua if he’s got the right game plan.
“Obviously, that’s our option to take, and it may well happen. We’re going to have a little think. Get his hand checked out, and get everything checked out, and we’ll see if that’s possible,” said Hearn about Joshua.
