Dana White said this week he does not expect to cross paths with Oscar De La Hoya at Garcia vs. Benn, even though De La Hoya is expected to be there on Saturday. White also cleared up the contract picture around Garcia, saying the fighter has exactly one bout left after Saturday night.
That matters because reports had differed during fight week on whether Saturday was Garcia’s final fight under the Golden Boy deal or whether one remained. White’s answer removed the ambiguity in plain language and turned a business question into part of the sell for the card: after Saturday, there is one fight left.
White said he and De La Hoya are not likely to run into each other and added that no interaction is planned. He had already brushed off the idea of a confrontation earlier in the week, answering the question about De La Hoya’s role by saying, “you answered your own question.”
The expectation of a face-to-face had been building for months. In June, De La Hoya predicted the press conferences might end up more interesting than the fight because of him and White going at it. Then in July, he told Ariel Helwani that being left off the New York launch stage was deliberate, and said, “Turki picked Dana White to run boxing in the US, that’s his guy.” Garcia, for his part, said De La Hoya had “Not a lot, I guess.” of a role in the fight.
But Thursday told a different story. De La Hoya was absent from the final press conference, leaving White’s dismissal of a showdown to stand without much visible pushback. The contrast was sharp: the feud has lasted nine years, yet the biggest visible development of fight week was not an argument, but the narrowing of Garcia’s remaining deal.
That leaves Saturday as the next checkpoint. De La Hoya is expected at the fight, White says no meeting is planned, and Garcia now moves toward the end of a contract that still has one fight left after the bell rings. If the card was supposed to answer the question of who gets the last word, White made clear that, at least for now, the business end of the deal is the louder part of the story.
