Oscar De La Hoya Answers Questions About His Future in Promoting MMA

Posted on | April 23, 2008 | 4 Comments

During Today’s Conference Call Leading Up To the Steve Forbes Fight, Golden Boy Promotions Front Man Oscar De La Hoya discussed why his team decided not to pursue promoting MMA events through coordination with Affliction Clothing.

By: Rich Bergeron

Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions team talked today about backing out of a deal to co-promote MMA fights with Affliction. Despite the kind of network television deals being talked about in mixed martial arts these days that boxing would love to have, the market may be too crowded for their liking at the moment.

EliteXC’s CBS deal is old news now, but reports about the UFC’s promising talks with FOX are just now starting to circulate. Add to the situation the unique way Mark Cuban is attempting to revolutionize the MMA industry with HDNet Fights, and it seems any fledgling MMA outlet stands to fight an uphill battle to succeed, no matter how much promotional muscle is behind it.

Richard Schaefer, chief executive officer of Golden Boy Promotions, pointed to adverse conditions for publicly traded MMA organizations that came out in SEC reports recently. Specifically, the IFL’s reporting mentioned that they may have problems continuing the business through the end of this year if conditions don’t improve.

De La Hoya expressed his wishes to focus more on the Sweet Science in order to take Boxing to a new level. While they didn’t rule out getting involved in the future, it seems Golden Boy Promotions is deciding to stick to their boxing roots and keep making progress there. Having been involved in both the promotional and pugilistic sides of one of the most incredible financial boxing successes in recent history (the first Mayweather vs. De La Hoya fight), Oscar seems confident that he’s in position to reshape the sport and improve it even more than he already has.

De La Hoya also noted that he is not at all distracted by his business-related responsibilities when it comes to preparing for fights. Here’s how it went down today when I pitched the Affliction question to De La Hoya:

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL RECORDING OF THE ENTIRE CALL