Listen to Oscar De La Hoya explain why he thinks Mayweather vs. McGregor fight was a ‘fraud’

Boxing legend and promoter Oscar De La Hoya hasn’t been shy about sharing his negative feelings on the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. He was critical before the bout on Saturday, and he called it a “fraud” while discussing it with reporters on Monday.

“I was defending my sport,” De La Hoya said of his profane prefight tweet. “I love boxing and boxing gave me everything I have. I’m a promoter for many years to come and I just thought that it was a fraud.”

De La Hoya has criticized the decision to book Mayweather against McGregor since it was first announced earlier in the year. In May, he said the sport of boxing “might not recover” from the fight. Just days before the big pay-per-view event, he sent out a profanity-filled tweet saying Mayweather-McGregor was “disrespecting” boxing, which led to an aggressive response from UFC president Dana White.

The fight went down Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Mayweather earned a technical knockout of McGregor in the 10th round to improve his career record to 50-0. The more experienced Mayweather coasted early on in the fight before aggressively going after a seemingly fatigued McGregor in the later rounds.

“The fact that some news broke today, this morning, that Mayweather bet on himself, in the 10th round, ironically,” De La Hoya said while explaining his mistrust of the event. “What does that tell you? It’s like Mayweather doesn’t throw a single punch or does nothing in the first four, five rounds. And then when he wants to turn it up, he turns it up and knocks him out, stops him in 10 rounds.”

De La Hoya, the founder of Golden Boy Promotions, endorsed a fight of his own while talking down the Mayweather-McGregor bout. Canelo Alvarez, who has had a close relationship with De La Hoya, and Gennady Golovkin are scheduled to fight under his banner on Sept. 16.