Former world champion pugilist-turned-promoter, Oscar De La Hoya has rekindled his feud with Dana White tonight. But this time, De La Hoya has kept it strictly professional, going after UFC’s parent company TKO’s new boxing venture set to launch later this year.
The Golden Boy Promotions chief has joined boxing analysts to call out White’s habit of underpaying his talents, in a dig at the leaked ‘pay structure’ on offer from TKO boxing.
“Speaking of scumbags, everyone has been asking me for my opinion and thoughts on Dana White attempting to enter the boxing space, again,” De La Hoya said on Instagram.
White and the TKO group joined with Turki Alalshikh earlier this year to announce a boxing league allowing the best talents in the sport to be matched up in accordance with their talents.
This new promotion aims to announce its own league and titles in an attempt to render the WBA, WBC, WBO and the IBF titles obsolete. White has long been a vocal dissident of the inner workings of pugilism, claiming that the athlete earned way too much money to make the sport sustainable.
And given White’s own record of abysmal revenue sharing with his UFC fighters, a dreaded pay structure was already expected to be introduced for his new pet project.
However, with championship fights paying the boxers $375,000 and $750,000 (challenger and champion respectively), while unranked fighters made $20,000 per 10-round fights, De La Hoya seems incensed.
“TKO’s supposed fighter pay slash salaries were leaked a few weeks ago. And if these are real, holy sh*t. Dana’s gonna have several problems. Number one, no fighter’s going to fight for these pennies“, he pointed out.
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“The majority of their prospects will fight one or two times a year,” he added. “And be forced to survive on minimum pay. And keep in mind, they will be fighting tough fights. Dana said, the best must fight the best”, De La Hoya contended.
However, TKO Boxing leader Alalshikh has his fair share to say about this rumored payment on the table for fighters.
Alalshikh attacks reporter of payment claims
Launching a scathing attack on journalist Garry Jonas for his reporting of the financials, Alalshikh dismissed the leak as fake news.
Turki Alalshikh responds to a circulating article regarding the TKO league: “This article is not factually accurate. I think Garry Jonas should focus on his business in Florida because he doesn’t want the FTC to call him again. I am wondering what is the structure of his business… pic.twitter.com/334clOqOOa
— Ring Magazine (@ringmagazine) March 19, 2025
Already linked to big-time matchups including Canelo Alvarez and Ryan Garcia, it’s unlikely that White and co. can secure their deals with such miserable pay as reported. However, the UFC’s track record and White’s vocal dislike for the money boxers earn does make for a tense few months ahead of their inaugural event.
