“Yeah I did my first fight in Ireland. Yeah we’ll start announcing stuff here beginning of ‘25,” said Dana White as he announced his comeback to the boxing world after his failed attempt back in 2017. La͏st wee͏k, dur͏in͏g ͏Callu͏m W͏alsh’s first boxing event under the UFC fight pass, Dana Wh͏ite ͏m͏ade the sensational revelation, which surprised t͏he͏ entire combat spo͏rts community, p͏rompti͏n͏g many ͏prominent figures ͏to share their thoughts, including Oscar ͏De La͏ Hoya.

Dana White has his set of critics and Oscar De La Hoya can be ranked at the top. While White’s boxing announcement drew praise from none other than Mike Tyson, De La Hoya has come forward to set forth the reality in front of White.

Dana White handed over reality by Oscar De La Hoya for his boxing journey

Callum Wal͏sh vs. ͏Prz͏emyslaw Run͏ow͏s͏ki marked ͏the first boxing match to take place on UFC Fight Pass. Dan͏a Whi͏te͏ experi͏mented͏ with this event and i͏t seems to have turned out to be an esot͏eric ven͏tur͏e fo͏r͏ th͏e͏ prom͏otion. Why is this the͏ case? Whi͏te appear͏s͏ to be bullish about venturing i͏nt͏o boxing ͏ye͏ars͏ ͏after labeling the͏ s͏port a͏s dying. Cur͏rently, boxing is highly unorganized; unlike MMA, it has multiple pro͏m͏otions with different champions and Dana White ͏a͏ims to bring the same level of organization to boxing as he has achieved ͏with MMA.

However, will he be able to achieve this? According to Oscar De La Hoya, it would be immensely difficult for the UFC CEO to get past boxers considering that he would have to pay a hefty sum to them, unlike MMA. “And speaking of Eddie, my other buddy Dana White had some high praise for him. Oh my gosh, Dana, you don’t want to work with me,” said De La Hoya.

He further added, “I guess I won’t be invited to your circle j**k with Eddie. You realize you will have to pay boxers real money if you want to be in our sport, right? You called The Godfather of promoters Bob Arum a scumbag and a piece of in a press conference last week. Way to start off your Neanderthal path into the world of boxing.” But this is not the first the boxer and the UFC got into a tiff!

Despite what seemed like the long-brewing animosity between the boxing veteran and the MMA promoter has fizzled out, in De La Hoya’s Club Shay Shay appearance he disclosed how it started in the first place. He said, “When I first thought about getting into MMA, yeah, I strongly feel that he just wanted to bury me, not have competition,” making the startling revelation that he indeed was interested in a move to the sport.

Further adding an interesting layer on the boxer’s recent comments, Dana White and Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum have been calling out each other since the boxing behemoth referred to UFC as ‘human c**kfighting’ back in its initial days. To add injury to insult, in conversation with the media, the UFC CEO fired shots at Arum and his son Todd Duboef, in all probability the instance De La Hoya referred to. He said, “The sc*mbag Bob Arum and his son Todd Duboef didn’t do the same. So they’re pieces of s***. I wanted to thank the Warrens, you guys are classy and I really appreciate it.”  

Firing shots at Bob Arum before starting his boxing venture is quite a brave move from Dana White. But regardless the UFC CEO, as mentioned earlier seemingly has the support of Iron Mike.

Mike Tyson showers praise for the UFC CEO

The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson shares a pretty friendly relationship with the UFC CEO. It must be noted that he has been a long-time friend of Dana White as well. Upon witnessing White’s boxing announcement, Tyson in a podcast episode emphasized that his interference would be the best thing to ever happen to the world of boxing.

“Well listen, that’s going to be the best thing to happen to boxing because Dana – listen, just like UFC, right? Listen, if you in UFC and if anybody’s booing a fight, you’re not going to see that guy. Their next fight is going to be in South Dakota somewhere. There’s only good fights. If you don’t have a good fight, you ain’t never going to see that guy again,” said  Tyson.

He further added, “Not like boxing – oh, this guy is going to fight next month again. You don’t want to see that. You might think about Shakur [Stevenson]. If any stink fights, you’re not back in the UFC no more. You’re never going to see those guys again.” Dana White’s boxing dreams have a simple flaw and that’s the high pay for the fighters. It would be interesting to witness, how the UFC CEO tackles this challenge.

Regardless, what’s your take on the comments? State your thoughts in the comments below.