This Saturday, November 24, 2018, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz will meet in their (awaited?) trilogy fight as the first-ever event under Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy MMA from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
De La Hoya is new to promoting MMA, and it’s safe to say that promotion didn’t get off to the best start. Liddell and Ortiz met in a tense staredown at yesterday’s pre-fight press conference. But it was De La Hoya’s overall ineptitude at promoting the card that had fans buzzing online.
De La Hoya turned the press conference into a scene when he repeatedly called Liddell ‘Chuck Lie-dell,’ who is supposedly his favorite MMA fighter. He also admitted he didn’t even know any of his undercard fighters on what is legitimately one of the most one-sided PPV cards of all-time.
Watch De La Hoya’s horrific start to his MMA promoting career in the presser video courtesy of MMA Fighting:
De La Hoya didn’t answer any questions from the media and seemingly left rather quickly before Liddell and Ortiz did their interviews. The scene had social media abuzz with justified and expected blastings of De La Hoya and his horrendous flub.
Liddell is willing to stick up for his promoter, however. “The Iceman” told The Mac Life (quotes via Bloody Elbow) that De La Hoya was doing his best and should be given a pass. It isn’t like the UFC where fighters are often experienced and therefore known he claimed. Liddell hopes De La Hoya’s influence will bring over boxing fans:
“He’s doing his best. He’s out here working. There’s a lot of fights on the card, and it’s certainly new to him. By the time someone makes it onto that stage in the UFC, they’ve been fighting for a long time in the same organization, so you should know their names, right? This is the first time. You can’t get mad at him too much.
“I’m hoping it will bring over some of those boxing fans. Boxing guys will hopefully try this out because Oscar is promoting.”
No Big Deal?
De La Hoya did butcher ‘The Iceman’s’ name, but Liddell said he’s seen that many times before. To him, De La Hoya is trying and it’s not a huge deal:
“Someone said he had it corrected. I thought he did, otherwise, I would’ve warned him before (the press conference), reminded him,” he said. “People give him a hard time, but I’ve had my name misspelled a lot of times — the UFC still misspells my name sometimes. It is what it is. He’s trying. It’s good. It’s okay.”
It’s not a huge surprise to hear De La Hoya’s headliner give him a pass for his repeated screw-ups.
After all, ‘The Golden Boy’ claims Ortiz and “Lie-dell” will make more money for the trilogy fight than they ever did to fight each other in the UFC.
Perhaps he is owed some patience as a new MMA promoter. Are you willing to give De La Hoya a pass like Liddell did or was his presser mess one you will not forgive?
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