Oscar De La Hoya appears desperate to get a foothold in Saudi Arabia by securing the biggest fights.

Bob Arum, Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren have established themselves in the Kingdom, leaving De La Hoya on the sidelines. Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have secured bouts in the Kingdom due to Hearn, Warren and Arum’s cooperation. Although that may be the case, De La Hoya has not managed to do the same.

His biggest fighter to date is Ryan Garcia, who may have enough of a following to secure a fight in the Kingdom. He was linked with the Devin Haney fight before going after Rolando Romero. If that fight can be revisited, then that would provide De La Hoya with a reason to enter the Saudi Market. By the looks of it, this is what he intends to do.

De La Hoya On Saudi

“I’ve promoted thousands of fighters including [Floyd] Mayweather, [Manny] Pacquiao, Canelo [Alvarez], [Marco Antonio] Barrera, Ryan [Garcia], I can identify a fighter and I can make you proud,” De La Hoya said 

Despite this being the case, it is essential to bear in mind the following points. De La Hoya’s biggest market is in the United States. Garcia’s fight with Gervonta Davis showed that as the bout sold over 1.2 million PPVs in a fight that captivated the American audience.

There is nothing to suggest that Garcia could have done the same if he were to fight in Saudi Arabia. But the Kingdom has shown that it is willing to pay fighters career-high purses to get fights over the line. Fury and Usyk were paid their highest purses without considering the purse split, as they were given fixed guarantees. But De La Hoya stated that he was concerned about fighters pursuing fights in Saudi, given that it takes away fights from the US.