Oscar De La Hoya Gives The Clap To Eddie Hearn, Devin Haney (Digging Into Oscar’s Clapback Thursday)

As boxing fans know, Thursdays are the day for Oscar De La Hoya’s “Clap Back Thursday”– the social media video commentary segment where The Golden Boy lashes out at all the boxing personalities living rent-free in his head.

And, as is also frequently the case with these “clap backs,” there’s plenty of “self-ownage” that comes along with the lashing out.

So, let’s take a look at what Oscar said this week and what it all really means. And, as Oscar says, “Remember guys, you’re never a hater if you only speak the facts.”

Oscar claps at the Devin/Bill Haney lawsuit vs. Ryan Garcia and Golden Boy:

“A few weeks ago the Haneys filed a lawsuit in the state of New York against my fighter Ryan Garcia for battery, fraud, and breach of contract. The Haneys also mentioned my company Golden Boy Promotions in the lawsuit because they want a full accounting of Devin’s fight against Ryan; they want to see my books.

“They don’t believe the fact that Garcia vs Haney only did a little over 300,000 homes, and they have been paid what they are owed. They want more money that doesn’t exist. Number one, Bill, we live in the same fancy neighborhood in Henderson. You could’ve knocked on my door and simply asked to see my books. We have told you over and over that this fight just didn’t sell. Those are the facts.

“Number two. You guys are suing Ryan Garcia for battery? Do you know your son Devin is a professional fighter, right, based on battering other opponents.

“And now, Bill, you’re going to say that Ryan was doped up for the fight. The traces of ostarine was so minute that professionals have said it didn’t even matter or make a difference. The truth is simple, that your son couldn’t block the left hook, he couldn’t stay on his feet with those nasty Uggs he was wearing, and he couldn’t handle Ryan Garcia.”

Well, ok…

The biggest takeaway from this fake-smiley airing of grievances is that Golden Boy’s biggest draw, the one fighter in their stable that touches the outer shell of superstar potential, Ryan Garcia, was “only” able to generate about 300K pay-per-view buys for a major bout with a known commodity– and that 300K number just may be the total number of sales, worldwide.

That’s not good news at all for Oscar’s GBP bottom line, even with Turki Alalshikh stuffing Saudi funny money into his g-string and garters (not literally…maybe not, anyway).

Even with the insane amount of publicity Garcia generated with his bat-shit crazy antics all throughout the lead-in to the fight and the mainstream attention those antics received, sales were weak coming off a pay-per-view with Gervonta Davis the year prior that generated 1.2 million domestic US buys.

While it’s true that Devin Haney is obviously not a pay-per-view draw, Garcia supposedly WAS. Except, he clearly isn’t. Haney was a strong enough B-side to facilitate sales with the kind of attention the fight was getting, but Garcia and Golden Boy just couldn’t turn that attention to sales.

That’s a fail for Garcia and GBP, and definitely not a truth worth revealing in an attempt to burn Bill Haney.

Eddie Hearn is a giant douche

“And just when things couldn’t get any worse for my buddy Eddie Hearn, they did. Dmitry Bivol suffered his first loss, further proving the Matchroom curse is a real thing. 14 main event fighters of yours lost this year. That has to be some kind of record.

“Look, despite the horrible things that people say about you, I don’t dislike you. I’m just pointing out the facts that you’re unable to do your job. People say you’re a giant douche and silver spoon-fed, trust fund loser. I just think you’re a horrible promoter. And you’ve proven me to be correct. I don’t know how much longer your funding will last considering you’ve built absolutely nothing, but it’s not my problem.

“There are two months left to redeem yourself in 2024, Eddie. I believe in you. Well, actually I don’t.”

You can’t argue with Oscar all that much on this one. Eddie Hearn IS a giant douche or, as I described him before, a “pantsload.”

As I wrote previously about the UK promoter, right here in these pages of The Boxing Tribune:

“Promoter Eddie Hearn is really, really good at two things– darts and falling into piles of money.

The Matchroom Boxing head, who inherited daddy’s promotional company and contacts, parlayed his name value into a reported $1 billion boxing deal with upstart streaming service DAZN (which he drove straight, well, nowhere, really).

And now, the vociferous nepo baby and “look at me” boxing presence has attached himself to yet another money mark in the form of Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority.”

Hearn really has shown an elite-level ability to sniff out money and latch on to it. From Daddy’s business to DAZN to an engineered friendship with cash cow Canelo Alvarez to this latest Saudi ring kissing, this guy is the Sugar Ray Robinson of gold digging.

But what Oscar is “clapping” is true. Hearn really hasn’t built all that much or even attained all that much success– beyond his smallish UK base– relative to all the money that has been flowing through his fingers. This latest influx of Turki bucks has bought him some American talent, like Shakur Stevenson and Jaron Ennis, but he’s yet to actually do much for them when it comes to getting them big fights and turning them into next-level stars.

I’m sure his bank account is doing fine, though. And maybe that’s all that really matters to him.