De La Hoya Bashes Matchroom's 'Thomas' Hearn's Ability To Promote In US: "Stay In The UK"

[Ruthless-RKO]

De La Hoya Bashes Matchroom's 'Thomas' Hearn's Ability To Promote In US: "Stay In The UK"

Oscar De La Hoya spent his Saturday night getting an impromptu facial treatment from his girlfriend Holly Sonders on Instagram Live discussing a different diet of topics.

Top of mind was the heavyweight tilt between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk, which took place earlier in the day in London and was shown in the United States around 2 p.m. PST in Los Angeles, where De La Hoya resides.

“I'll tell you one thing. Joshua versus Usyk -- nobody saw in the United States,” said De La Hoya following Usyk’s victory to capture the heavyweight titles. “What's that promoter that doesn't know how to and has no clue of what to do in the US? I think his name is Hearn or something.”

“Oh, Thomas Hearn,” said Sonders, a sportscaster who moonlights as a model.

“Yeah, Thomas Hearn,” De La Hoya continued. “Thomas Hearn -- stay in the UK. Promote your fights. You have no clue what you are doing in the US. DAZN is doing the right thing by sticking with Golden Boy.”

Immediately after the barb, De La Hoya revealed he is close to finalizing fights between Ryan Garcia and Jospeh Diaz Jr as well as Jaime Munguia and Gabriel Rosado.

The former six-division champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee also has a broadcast deal with DAZN, which is set to expire at the end of the year.

DAZN took a step back from its North American expansion strategy and instead pivoted its sports streaming service as a global company last year during the pandemic.

Hearn followed suit and has since significantly decreased his involvement in staging shows in North America.

Earlier this month, four-division boxing champion Mikey Garcia revealed that DAZN and Matchroom’s budgets didn’t allow for him to fight former world titlist Regis Prograis. Instead, Garcia was left to face little-known Sandor Martin on DAZN in Fresno, Calif. on Oct. 16 in a show promoted by Hearn.

“We were originally at trying to fight against Regis Prograis. The timing and schedules of DAZN and Matchroom didn’t quite fit with the budgets that were required and the dates and stuff,” said Garcia. “[Eddie Hearn] said DAZN didn’t have the budget for that type of fight [with Prograis]. That would require a different promotion, more time to promote, and more time to build up the fight. They didn’t have the time to do that.”

It was a feisty Saturday night for De La Hoya overall, who also traded punches with UFC president Dana White on Twitter regarding fighter pay.

[maverick23]

He comes across bitter. Probably down to Canelo being friendly with Eddie.

Always going to be difficult to promote a Ukrainian vs a Brit, when neither of them have fought much in the US at non-primetime.

Are there many fights in the U.K. at primetime for the U.K. that have been big in the US?!

[Ruthless-RKO]

He comes across bitter. Probably down to Canelo being friendly with Eddie.

Always going to be difficult to promote a Ukrainian vs a Brit, when neither of them have fought much in the US at non-primetime.

Are there many fights in the U.K. at primetime for the U.K. that have been big in the US?!

GGG vs. Brook did decent numbers in the US in the later afternoon, but GGG was pulling in over 1 million viewers on HBO in primetime.

Also, AJ-Wlad did decent numbers on Showtime live, HBO did better numbers when they showed highlights later that day..

[(craig)]

Loved watching DLH fight, everything since has been a disappointment.

[maverick23]

I always enjoy Dana White giving him a hard time. Dana goes in hard on him and Arum.

[mickey1975]

I always enjoy Dana White giving him a hard time. Dana goes in hard on him and Arum.

Dana is obsessed with boxing.