Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya took to social media to explained why he, and Golden Boy partner Bernard Hopkins, were absent from Saturday’s post-fight press conference for the lightweight showdown between Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia.
In a highly anticipated fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Davis dropped Garcia in the second round and then knocked him out in the seventh with a hard body shot.
Garcia was backed at the press conference by Golden Boy President Eric Gomez, but both De La Hoya and Hopkins were missing from the function.
There was a confrontation during Friday’s official weigh-in, between Davis and Hopkins. The exchange of harsh words began when Hopkins touched Davis from behind.
It wasn’t long before conspiracy theories began to spread on social media, with some fans alleging that Hopkins may have rubbed a banned substance on Davis’ back.
Because of that incident, De La Hoya claims that Davis’ promoter, Premier Boxing Champions [PBC], banned Hopkins from being anywhere near Davis for the remainder of the fight week.
“I do want to clarify why Bernard Hopkins and I weren’t at the post-fight press conference. First of all, Bernard Hopkins was accused during the weigh-in of having testosterone cream on his hands and touching Gervonta Davis. He only wanted to help him because he was going to fall off the stage.
So PBC, Gervonta’s promoter, banned [Hopkins] from everything. He couldn’t get inside the ring, he couldn’t do anything during the promotion."
As for De La Hoya, the former six division champion explains that he received death threats.
“As for myself… my security team told me - ‘boss, we gotta get the f— out of here’ - because I received death threats. You guys don’t know this, I received death threats throughout the whole week and [my security team] just said it was simply too dangerous, so we got out of there. And plus, Eric Gomez, who is president, who was right there front and center with Ryan Garcia, so there was no issue, no problems.
"This [talk about me and Hopkins] is all coming from all these PBC minions that are just attacking Ryan, attacking Golden Boy, but it’s all good. Ryan Garcia made this [fight] happen, Tank made this [fight] happen. We had a great fight. The best man won. My hat’s off to you. Tank Davis you’re a great fighter. Ryan Garcia, I have your back, Bernard has your back. We’re with you 1000% and you will be back better than ever, stronger than ever - guaranteed.”