Well, it is my pleasure to once again welcome to our podcast to one
and only Hall of Fame Boxer outstanding promoter, Oscar de la Hoya. Oscar,
thank you very much for doing this. We have a very big fight
to talk about, don't we. Yes, we do, we do,
and I'm excited. I'm excited. It's gonna be. Uh, it's gonna
be one of those events that you're gonna remember where you were, you know,
the night of the of the special fight on four twenty. Well,
I sure hope. So, so we'll make sure people know which fight we're
talking about. I hope they do. We're talking about a great matchup between
the WBC Junior Welterweight Champion Devin Haney taking on the superstar Ryan Garcia in a
big, big fight as you mentioned, April twentieth, DO Zone pay per
view here in the United States, DI Zone worldwide around the rest of the
globe. My first question this is, I don't know if you guys have
figured this all out yet. When when the when the fighters went on their
social media and you and and the Zone and everybody was putting out the fact
that this was made in the two fighters went to do some interviews at the
Super Bowl Radio row, the location of the fight was not said. Do
we know yet where this fight's going to take place? We do not know
where, but it will be in Vegas. Got you what. We don't
have the venue just yet, but it will be in Las Vegas, all
right, So that narrows it down. Obviously, there's only about three places
that can handle a fight like this. It seems to me T Mobile Arena,
the MGM Grand Garden Arena, I Guesst. Thomas and Mack Center Mandalay
Bay probably too small. I mean, am I missing something? Well?
I mean there's also the Allegiance Stadium, So there's that's true, several possibilities.
We're not quite ready for the Spear yet, I guess right well,
the Sphere. The Sphere is not quite ready with their technology that's so advanced.
Imagine imagine. The Sphere has a sixteen K sixteen K technology which can
be transmitted over to four K. So they're still trying to figure those kings
out. But I'm very confident that someday still will be first promoted to stage
a fight from this year, Well, that'll be very exciting in terms of
making the deal for this fight. One of the things that very much interested
in me was other than I guess we'll call it a hiccup when you had
begun to try to make the fight with Haney at Ryan's request, and then
he had a sudden change of mind and said let's pursue Roly Romero instead for
the WBA title. That did not last because even though my understanding, as
you guys were, you know, down the road to some degree, he
ended up taking an offer from it for another fight and he will fight Pitt
Bull Cruise in March, and that left Ryan without a big marquee name.
Devin was still looking for a big marquee name himself, and once he went
back to the table to try to make this match, I guess yourself and
Bill Haney, it only took maybe like what a week, ten days and
then the scheme of major fights, Oscar, you know, that's like a
couple hours. I mean, that's a real eal, very drama free.
Can you characterize and explain how you were able to make this caliber fight at
least from looking outside, pretty pain free, pretty drama free. Sure.
I mean, first of all, let's go back. Let's go back to
the to the original plan. That I had, and that was Ryan versus
Rowley, and Ryan gave me, you know, instructions to go after Rolli's
and we were making offers back and forth. And when that famous jog at
three am with Mayweather and Ryan Garcia happened to make it I mean, I'm
sorry Rolli's and Ryan Garcia. We were trying to make rollies and Ryan Garcia,
that's that. That was the original plan. And when that famous jog
at three in the morning with Mayweather and Ryan happened, you know, everything
got derailed because of his influence of Mayweather's influence, so you know, there
might be some kind of breach there from Mayweather. But anyway, we have
a great fight coming up April twentieth. You know, it wasn't it wasn't
that complicated to make, you know, And let me go back to the
roll situation. I mean, we offered him a ridiculous amount of money and
now he goes back and is fighting on Prime with new guarantee whatsoever, hoping
that the pay per view just hits. So anyway, but I can't,
by the way, I can't even figure that one out because he's not even
the main event in that fight. Exactly. So there's no way, there's
no way Rollies is making more money than what I offered him. There's no
way whatsoever. So when you when you had been asked about doing the Rollie
fight, that was after you originally he drand it asked me to do with
the Haney fight. Now you go back to try to make the Haney fight,
which you're now successful in doing with his father. And again, how
why was it so easy to make this fight? Really? And I say
easy, I mean relative to other major fights let's talk about you know,
the complications were, for example, making Ryan when he fought against Tank Davis
or any number of other major fights that take place. All things considered,
this one felt like it came together with zero drama. It was, it
was, it was almost zero drama. I mean, but I look,
I was dealing with with Bill Haney all along, and he was literally,
you know, a pleasure to work with. I mean, yes, there
was you know, a few headaches and complications here and there, but nothing
nothing to go you know, cry home about. But I strongly feel that,
I strongly feel that Haney and Ryan Garcia really want to be great.
I really do, because as I was negotiating this, and like you said,
it was easy to negotiate because when fighters want to fight each other,
things things happen, things get made, and and so you know, we
were dealing back and forth. Ryan Garcia agreed, the Haines agreed, and
you know we're off to the races. And you know, it really is
a breath of fresh air to have two guys, two young guys in their
prime. I believe they're twenty five years old each. Yeah, imagine in
their prime fighting each other. You just don't see that anymore. So that's
why I think this fight here is going to be so special for that reason,
and then not not that reason alone. I mean, both guys are
very talented, they're strong, they have I mean, keep in mind,
these guys are three and three in the amateur very interests. Amy beat him
three times, Ryan beat him three times. This is the tiebreaker for all
the marbles. You know, you made a really good point. Though they're
both twenty five years old, and there's so many times where you've seen when
fights that are huge finally do get made, the fighters are not in their
primes. You know, Girls Spence fought Terrence Crawford. We all wanted to
see it, but they were obviously into their deep thirties. When Floyd and
Manny pack Yo finally fought, they were obviously near the end of their careers.
Of course, you have Ryan Garcia and Tanked, and Ryan Garcia and
Devin Hainey fighting at age twenty five. I mean, I'm not saying they're
the same fighters are the same kind of fight, but I think about fights
like Ray Leonard was like twenty three or something like that, and Tommy Hearns
was like twenty five twenty six, Like they're doing that type of matchup,
and it may go rivalry wise with them and some other guys in around their
weight class who are the same ages where we may see those fights. Do
you think because they're doing this, other fighters may think to themselves, hey,
we should do this also. And I say that because Ryan was obviously
willing to take on Tank Davis at at a younger age. Tank was still
in his twenties when he fought Ryan, and they were finally seeing some movement
with the younger fighters. Not wait until they're end the end of their careers.
Sure well, look, I mean, look, I sure hope that
you know these fighters are taking notes. I sure hope that that, you
know, because think about it right now, Ryan, especially Ryan, because
like you mentioned, he's coming off the Tank fight and now he's fighting Hany
in his time, you know, I sure hope that other fighters realize that
it's okay to fight the best, and if you don't come out on top
and you put out a great performance, you still do not lose, right,
you still live to see another day, so or another payday. Well
he'll have had by the way, because the fight's April twentieth, it'll be
three fights in three hundred and sixty five day period of one year, not
a counter year. But he fought Tank last April, the fight with Devin
is this April. In between he obviously had to come back and the big
knockout win against Duarte, so he's staying active making major fights. Like you
said, I think that is definitely a breast breath of fresh air. And
if you take a look at the Hany record recently, he went fought George
Cambos's two times in Australia. Racist hand to do that when Loma fell out,
went and fought Loma after that, you know, on pay per view,
moved up, fought Regi's programming. Now he's taken on Devin Haney,
I mean not Ryan Garcia rather, and so he's fighting all the big fights.
Also, what is it that says these two guys apart from some other
guys who don't seem too interested in doing that. I strongly feel that it's
it's obviously their their will, and it's it's there, it's it's it's them
making the decisions, like I want to be great. I want to be
considered a legendary fighter. And I love that because when when you think that
way of becoming a legend become you know, being part of uh certain fights
at a certain point of your career, at your peak, that's that's when
you become Yeah, that's when you have legendary status. But the money will
also come. The money will also be right behind you. And so a
lot of fighters these days are thinking, well, let me make the money,
let me let me make the wrong fights, let me make the most
money possible and uh and and then they and then they don't worry about their
legendary status. And that's been the wrong you know, the wrong thinking uh
with with these young kids is that you know, you have to think about
legacy first, then the money will come. So do you think also that
I think about it like this. At some point, it's great that you
can make and take big fights, but at some point you do have to
at least put a win in the in the win Colm to keep that going.
And does that put a little more pressure on Ryan in this fight because
his big, big fight prior to this, which was the the Tank Davis
fight, he didn't win. Yeah, look I I look right, Ryan
Garcia is still making more money than any fighter in his weight class, including
Tank Davis. I guarantee you that Tank Davis will make less money in his
less next fight than Ryan Garcia fighting hany So it doesn't really matter, you
know, if you lose, it's how you lose. If you lose in
a great fight, if you lose in a fight that's close, a fight
that is exciting, you actually can sometimes even win even bigger if you lose
in a great fight. I totally understand that. I was interested in your
perspective on their confrontation. They obviously made their announcements on their social that the
fight was all done, and then they were doing some interviews that super Bowl
Radio wrote in Las Vegas to try to get a kickstart on the promotion of
the event, let people know it's happening, even though there hasn't yet been,
you know, the formal press conference, et cetera. So I'm sure
you know you saw the video. They were going to take some photos and
some video, and of course they got into it and there was some pushing
and shoving, Ryan pushing Devin Devon retaliating. You know, you you were
in a lot of fights in your career. I maybe I'm missing something,
but I don't really ever remember there being that type of activity from your fights.
It kind of seemed a little contrived from my perspective. Uh what did
you make of all that? I I I really feel they have, uh
a real animosity towards each other. I I really do think there's like bad
blood there. You know, they're coming off uh three wins each in the
Amateurs. You know, Devin Haney wants to prove something. Ryan Garcia wants
to prove something. You know, the the fact that they have history amongst
each other is is uh is going to be a play a huge factor in
this fight. Who can who can keep their composure, who can who can
stay in the game and stay focused during the fights and not let those emotions
get in the way. I I just feel that with Devin Haney, with
Ryan that animosity, and then with Bill Haney and my partner Bertinard, it's
gonna take it over the top. I think, I think this fight is
going to be one of the biggest fights in the year. Well, I
think we might see a little activity between your man Bernard and mister Bill Haney
as well. That seems inevitable. They're about the same age. Also,
maybe they could throw down who that is. I might maybe make an offer
to both. Well, listen, they're both in great shape. I can
tell you that I'm really I'm really pumped up for this fight, and I'm
glad we were able to talk about it. I must ask you, as
long as I have you, I have one other thing I wanted to ask
you about. One of the biggest fights in the career of Oscar de la
Hoya was against e Quarte. I'm sure you remember that. Well, it
just so happens. I don't want to make you feel old. I know
I feel old when I say it. Oscar was twenty five years ago this
week. If you can believe that twenty five years ago, on February thirteenth,
nineteen ninety nine, you were defending the nineteen ninetynine. You're defending the
the WBC welterweight world title. You were I think that was you were at
your peak of your career. It seemed like you're on a tremendous run.
You had beaten Javas in the rematch, your next fight was Obacar, then
came Trinidad. You know you were right there in the throes of your of
your championship first time at welterweight. What are your memories of that fight.
I just remember so many things about it, the sixth round, with the
knockdowns, your incredible near knockout in the twelfth round, and the great call
from Jim Lampley on the broadcast. Watching that on pay per view, I
think that's one of your biggest wins. I mean again, it's twenty five
years ago, so I thought maybe i'd jog your memory and see what what
you remember about that great the game. I think it was one of my
one of the funnest times I've had in the rain, literally because see what
people don't know is I actually got cut on my right eye before about I
would say about two weeks before training camp it was a bad, bad cut.
And I said before training camp or in training camp, before before before
the actual fight, in training camp, and uh, and it was about
two weeks before. And I remember they didn't let me spar, they didn't
let me train because, you know, because the cut might reopen. And
I remember just telling myself, I cannot pull out. I cannot pull out
this. This fight is very important because this fight here, nobody wanted to
fight Corte. I took the fight, so I have to follow through.
And I remember, I remember I was in great, great shape for the
fight, right because I always trained hard. But mentally I was always asking
myself, my gosh, what if I get tired, What if I get
tired. I didn't train for these last two weeks because of my cut.
What if I get tired? So I had that in my mind, and
sure enough that the eye, Courte came out strong. He came out,
I mean, he was to his IQ, was incredible inside the ring.
He was tough as nails then. But it just it made it a fun
fight. Maybe you'll disagree with this when I look back at your career,
and you had a lot of big fights and fought a lot of great fighters,
a lot of Hall of famers and all that. I think, and
I when I think about the Courte fight, I feel like it was the
first time in your professional career that you really had a bite down and show
serious toughness. Not that you weren't tough and you didn't fight good fighters,
but you really were in with a guy that was more physical than you with
the power jab, a guy that was very, very dangerous. A lot
of people thought you were crazy for taking the fight, that he was going
to win the fight. You feel like that was the first time you truly
had a bite down and show that grit. I think, I think it's
the first time that I was I was taken out of my comfort zone.
You know a lot of things, a lot of you know, things that
people don't know about me is that I was in my career, you know,
and and and and and I don't know if people who are listening saw
my documentary on HBO Max or or or if you if you watch it after
this interview. I watched it. You know, Uh, I was,
I was. I was. I was very comfortable doing what I was doing,
and and and staying at stay staying comfortable. I was just very comfortable
because I had the fame coming back from the Olympics, I had the money,
I had everything, you know, and so I was just getting by,
you know, I was getting by, you know, training hard in
camp, but just getting by doing enough. And so with Courte Man,
he took me out of my comfort zone and I had really big taped out
inside. I mean, if I can't even imagine if I was in great,
great, great shape, who knows what would have happened. But but
yeah, Courte took me out of that comfort zone and I had to do
a little extra to win that fight. So just wrap it up with this
Oscar. You remember that twelfth round you had him on the ropes, Jim
Lambley screaming. It's like Leonard Hearn's all over again, because you were having
draped across the ropes the way Sugar Ray Leonard had Tommy over the ropes in
round fourteen of their classic first fight. You did not get to stop,
but you were maybe like literally a punch away. Maybe other reps would have
stopped. At Mitch Halpern that night, they elected not to stop it.
I mean, you got to win, and it was a great victory.
But how much would you have liked to get that stoppage right there in the
twelfth round? Oh my gosh, I mean I didn't. I don't know
what I could have done with everything Oscar I hit him with like thirty unanswered
punches, and the way he stood up, who knows how he did.
I mean it was incredible. It was It was literally out of a Rocky
movie. When that last bell rang in the twelfth round. I mean I
was just exhausted and happy, and I mean it was just such a great
moment. Yeah, great memories. And do you put it then? I
guess, Oh, you know, had a lot of big wins, whether
it's Chavez or this fight, or you know, you know, moving up
and down the waight classes, unifying titles in a lightweight division for Nandal Vargas,
et cetera. I mean, where do you rank it? You would
you say in your pantheon of big Oscar de l Away victories? Oh my
gosh, I mean top five, absolutely, top five. I mean I
strongly if you look at it. You know, the one thing about reminiscing
and remembering, you know, the I Coorte fight twenty five years ago,
It just it makes me, it makes me want to work harder to get
myself into the Hall of Fame again as a promoter. And you know,
and I don't think that's ever been done ever in the history of the sport.
You know, I'm not even sure that I've been voting in the Hall
of Fame for like over twenty years, and I'm not even sure that that.
I guess technically that is allowed because you're in different categories. You're inducted
as a boxer in the modern category of men's fighters, but there is a
category that's separate that is for you know, non participants, observers, and
you know, all kinds of other categories. So you know, maybe that
is possible. Well, I mean the boxing promoter. I mean, there's
what Bob Arab who was a promoter. There's don Key who's a promoter.
I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to check with my good friend Ed Brophy
at the Boxing Hall of Fame and ask me if that's something that's uh,
it's every because what I'm what I'm what I've been doing for the last twenty
plus years, I mean, has been pretty remarkable for a next fighter.
I don't think it's ever been done. So that's all I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna push for these big fights. I'm gonna continue to do what I
do best, and that's love the sport of boxing, and and and and
just continue to grow it. Well. We got another big one with with
Devin Haney against Ryan Garcia on April twentieth. Oscar, appreciate you taking the
time out to talk to me about it as well as the memories of the
great fight you had with I twenty five years ago. Thank you very much,
and I hope you have a great success in the promotion. Thank you,
thank you. We'll see yourself take your m hm.