It’s rare for fierce rivals to join forces, but in this case, that’s exactly what happened. While appearing in a recent podcast, the head of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De La Hoya, shed light on his company promoting five-division champion Floyd Mayweather, which ended up making millions. The duo shared a mutual dislike for each other long before their famous bout in 2007. 

Despite that, after Floyd bought himself out from Top Rank in 2006, he started working with De La Hoya’s GB Promotions. It’s largely believed that Mayweather agreed to do so because of his close relationship with Richard Schaefer, who was the CEO of GB Promotions at the time. Interestingly, ‘Money’ recently hired Schaefer to be the CEO of Mayweather Promotions after Leonard Ellerbe stepped down from the post. But now the question is, how much did Mayweather cash in while working with his rival?

Oscar De La Hoya claims the partnership put them on the map

While appearing on the Club Shay Shay podcast, hall of fame NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe probed the ‘Golden Boy’ about his company promoting Mayweather for “16-17” fights. It’s worth noting that the eight-time world champion started his company in 2002 and became the first Spanish-speaking owner of a professional boxing promotion company.

The Mayweather deal came four years later when Money, who had a unique opt-out clause in his contract with veteran promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank, executed this clause and paid $750,000 to become a free agent. Oscar acknowledged this by stating, “I did promote Floyd yeah and you know he was, at the time when he was making, I think, it was a Showtime contract $30 [to] $40 million.”

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The partnership turned out to be a “great experience” for the company, and Oscar went as far as to say, “It put us on the map.” The six-division champion believes that was the reason his company became “one of the top promoters in the world.” Interestingly, however, when Schaefer parted ways with GB Promotions in 2014 because of some disagreements with Oscar, Floyd stopped working with the company and so did several other fighters. 

Regardless, it’s not all hunky dory from Oscar’s perspective either, who added, “The one thing that I’m not too keen on with boxing is that it became a business. It wasn’t a business before.” He acknowledged that his promotion had made him a boatload of money, but he wanted it to be a “platform for me to be great,” rather than a “businessman.” 

Even though Oscar acknowledged the partnership with Mayweather benefited his company, that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t shown his dislike for Mayweather. Take the Ryan Garcia incident, for example. 

Oscar asked Floyd Mayweather to f**k off

Back in January, tensions between Oscar De La Hoya and his fighter, Ryan Garcia, began to escalate, particularly when Garcia started getting a bit too close with Floyd Mayweather. The timing was especially suspicious, as Garcia and Oscar were already embroiled in a heated dispute after Garcia felt abandoned by his promoter following his loss to Gervonta Davis in 2023. The situation grew so contentious that they even filed lawsuits against each other.

Initially, Oscar didn’t mind Mayweather helping Garcia with his training. However, everything changed when a video clip of Mayweather and Garcia surfaced online. That was the final straw for Oscar. He decided to speak out, writing a sharply worded message to his long-time rival. “Floyd, if you want to give Ryan the secret to defense in the ring, that’s great. Other than that, if you are still a promoter like it says here, f*** off,” Oscar declared strongly. Garcia and Oscar would eventually hash things over before Garcia fought Devin Haney. 

With that said, even though Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather might not have liked each other very much, their partnership in the past proved highly fruitful. But what is a rivalry that doesn’t last a lifetime? What are your thoughts on their equation?