Dana White Denies Banning Oscar De La Hoya From Garcia-Benn
Dana White said Oscar De La Hoya was not barred from Saturday’s Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn card, pushing back on reports that Zuffa Boxing kept the Golden Boy Promotions chairman out of T-Mobile Arena. The UFC CEO addressed the rumor at the post-fight press conference after Garcia stopped Benn in two rounds to retain the WBC welterweight title.
The question came as soon as White finished discussing Garcia’s future. A reporter asked if De La Hoya had been in the building.
“He wasn’t,” White said. “And I heard there’s some rumblings.”
Those rumblings started during fight night, when veteran boxing writer Dan Rafael reported that Zuffa had denied De La Hoya a credential. Golden Boy later told Rafael that company staff were also turned away even though the promotion represents Garcia and had a fighter on the undercard. Rafael added that De La Hoya watched the main event from his Las Vegas home.
White did not soften the personal history. He made the dislike mutual before he rejected the idea of a silent freeze-out.
“I don’t like De La Hoya, and De La Hoya doesn’t like me,” White said.
He then drew a line between a public slight and a direct warning. White said he would not let a rival walk into his event and then treat him poorly in front of cameras and a sold-out arena.
“We would never—I would never disrespect him and say, ‘Oh, he shows up here, and we treat him like sht,’” White said. “I would call him on the phone and say, ‘Hey, don’t f**ing show up to this event, ’cause we’re not gonna treat you well.’ That wasn’t the case.”
The last line was the one White wanted on the record. He said no such call was made and that he does not know why De La Hoya stayed away.
“Why he didn’t show up, I don’t know.”
The absence stood out because Garcia remains a Golden Boy fighter and the bout was co-promoted after months of legal friction. Golden Boy sent Zuffa a cease-and-desist letter in June over talks for the September 12 date, and DAZN separately asserted broadcast rights tied to Garcia. Turki Alalshikh later helped close the deal that put Zuffa Boxing and Golden Boy on the same poster, with Paramount+ carrying most of the world feed.
The partnership never looked warm. De La Hoya was left off the New York launch stage in July and later told Ariel Helwani he believed organizers were trying to keep him away from White. Fight week in Las Vegas followed the same pattern. White ran the final press conference. De La Hoya was not on the dais.
Garcia tried to stay out of the promoter fight after the knockout. The champion said he had no idea why De La Hoya was missing and added that he holds no grudge.
“I have no idea, brother. I try to stay out of it,” Garcia said. “I have no bad feelings toward Oscar, and I don’t really know what’s been going on. I just stay out of it and focus on the fight.”
Other accounts complicated that picture. Rafael reported that Garcia had invited De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez to walk him to the ring, then changed course and used Marco Antonio Barrera and Rey Mysterio instead. Those details remain disputed and have not been independently confirmed by Zuffa.
Inside the ropes, the night belonged to Garcia. He dropped Benn with a right hand in the second round and finished the contest at 1:25 after referee Thomas Taylor stepped in with Benn on the ropes. Garcia improved to 26-2 with one no-contest and made the first defense of the belt he won from Mario Barrios in February. Benn fell to 25-2 in his first world title shot and was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
White also said Garcia still has one fight left on his Golden Boy contract. That detail matters more than the press-conference heat, because it means the two promotions are not finished with each other even after Saturday’s stoppage.
The credential dispute does not change the result or the rankings. It does show how little trust remains between White and De La Hoya after years of public shots, legal letters, and a forced co-promotion. White’s version is that De La Hoya could have walked in. Golden Boy’s version, through Rafael, is that the door was closed.
What comes next for Garcia is the immediate business question. He called for a welterweight unification with Teofimo Lopez after the win, while White said the champion’s remaining Golden Boy date still has to play out before any larger Zuffa conversation. Until that last contracted fight is booked, the two camps that barely shared a poster on Saturday will have to decide whether they can share another room without turning the next press conference into another argument about who was allowed through the door.