Dana White denies setting up De La Hoya at Garcia-Benn fight, recalls Vince McMahon doing it to him

Dana White has rejected Oscar De La Hoya’s allegation that he was set up to be embarrassed at last month’s WBC title fight between Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn, saying his personal animosity toward De La Hoya would never translate into that kind of treatment at an event he was running.

De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions co-promoted the bout alongside White’s Zuffa Boxing, chose not to attend on fight night, claiming his staff felt disrespected and that he suspected White was orchestrating a public humiliation. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday following the latest episode of Contender Series, White pushed back firmly.

“I would never do that,” White said. “My dislike for Oscar De La Hoya is very well known. He knows it, I know it, and it’s mutual. But I am the type of person, I would call and say, ‘Don’t even try and show up to this fight. You’re not welcome.’ I would never have somebody show up to an event and do that.”

To illustrate his point, White drew on his own experience of being on the receiving end of exactly that treatment — at the hands of WWE chairman Vince McMahon, when Ronda Rousey made her first wrestling appearance.

“It happened to me,” White said. “Vince McMahon did it to me for Ronda’s first wrestling match. I showed up at will call — I flew to New Orleans, showed up at will call, and they said, ‘Oh, we have no tickets for you.’ I started making some phone calls; they end up getting me tickets, I’m in the bleachers. I’ve been through all that. I wouldn’t do that to even an enemy.”

Reports following the Garcia-Benn event suggested that while De La Hoya did have tickets, they were not ringside — the standard placement for a co-promoter — but elsewhere in the venue. White addressed that directly, saying De La Hoya was assigned to the same celebrity VIP area as other high-profile guests and was fully aware of the arrangement in advance.

“Oscar knew he had tickets,” White said. “Oscar knew where he was sitting. Oscar was coming in the back, like all the celebrities do, to the celebrity VIP area, and he knew all of that. I’m not saying that in his mind he didn’t think, ‘Maybe these guys are gonna do that,’ but let’s just be straight up and open about this: I would never do that to anybody.”

White also noted that WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman was among others who reportedly shared De La Hoya’s unease about the event, though he maintained his position that no deliberate slight was intended toward anyone involved.