It looks straight out of a spaghetti western. The jury is still out, but the shots are still being fired. After Oscar De La Hoya gave an unfiltered view, Eddie Hearn took turns blasting Dana White and the inner crew who backed the Ali Revival Act at the Senate hearing.

“I don’t really think he knows what’s going on in terms of what other people are doing because they’re so arrogant,” he told Fight Hub TV’s Michelle Joy Phelps. “They just think what they do is like…and one thing I’ve actually come to realize is, and I’ve said from the start, these guys are very smart, very powerful. I don’t think they know what they’re doing in boxing.”

He pointed out how Dana White, despite his Zuffa Boxing being on the scene for barely four months, has been comparing himself with legacy promoters. The response prompted Phelps to ask whether White was trying to stir things up.

“Yeah, like, don’t forget when they started the whole thing was this league, right?” Hearn explained. “And it was a new league for boxing. Where’s the league? I mean, we’re 6 months in, nearly. And all we’ve seen is five shows with a load of randoms on them and a couple of, well, one really big signing in Connor Benn, but who’s not even fighting on Zuffa for shows, just fighting on ring cards.”

Building on that point, the Englishman wondered how White and his team often slam established promoters for lacking vision but, on their own, have yet to deliver anything creative.

Even when the media presses for answers, asking White about plans, the response remains vague, Eddie Hearn claimed.

“It’s like how long we got to wait,” Hearn asked. “You know, I don’t think they have the vision. I don’t think they have the plan. I just think they think they’re all-powerful and we can put a couple of tweets out from WWE, and it’ll all be massive. It doesn’t work like that in boxing.”

Given his tension with White and their much-publicized back-and-forth, Hearn’s stance is not new. What stands out, however, is the timing.

It comes on the heels of the Senate hearing that unfolded in Washington, D.C. Voicing their concerns, Oscar De La Hoya and Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Nico Ali Walsh, defend the provisions in the existing Ali Act that safeguard the most critical aspect of fighters’ safety.

In contrast, TKO, which backs the Revival bill, argued that it offers an additional option for fighters who have more often than not struggled in a sport that’s faced challenges over the years.

Later, speaking about the hearing, De La Hoya criticized it, saying it appeared partisan.

“We walked into a buzzsaw,” he said. “It was crazy how Chairman Cruz, we met him beforehand, and all he can talk about was President Donald Trump, how-what a great time they had at the UFC event. The questions felt scripted; I mean, the corruption that I felt in the room was just disgusting.”

Taken together, the scene points to a landscape where the old guard is being tested by a new disruptor that has clearly rankled them with its unconventional moves. Now the question is whether that disruption translates into results or if the criticism from Hearn ultimately proves justified.