“When you sold the company for over 4.5 billion dollars how much of that did Chuck and I get ? Nothing.”
UFC president Dana White recently came out and blasted Oscar De La Hoya for his debut MMA event at Golden Boy MMA 1, which saw Tito Ortiz knock out old rival Chuck Liddell in the main event at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
White, who came under fire from De La Hoya for under-compensating his fighters, fired back at the former boxing world champion for paying some fighters on the Golden Boy MMA card as little as $1,500 show money.
The longtime UFC promoter called De La Hoya a ‘cokehead’ and a ‘weirdo’, but Tito Ortiz didn’t let White’s comments go unchallenged.
In a recent Instagram post, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy paid his respects to White but criticized the former boxercise instructor for not giving back to the fighters after the UFC’s landmark $4 billion sale in 2016.
@DanaWhite – “I appreciate everything you have done for the me & the sport, in my humble opinion I don’t feel Chuck & I were compensated correctly for all that we gave & sacrificed for the company. When you sold the company for over 4.5 billion dollars how much of that did Chuck and I get ? Nothing…. I’m trying to build something new and rewarding for the sport! This is not about you, it is not about me… I want it to be about the fighters & giving them the opportunity to share in all the rewards this business has to offer to where they don’t have to fight when they are 43 & 48.” @GoldenBoyBoxing@UFC
Ortiz, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, announced his retirement at the Golden Boy MMA post-fight press conference, opting to pursue his career as an MMA promoter and ‘give back to the fighters.’ Liddell, who turns 49 next month, teased that he may continue fighting despite alarming concerns over his health.