Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya appeared recently on the State of Combat podcast and spoke with host Brian Campbell the economic impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and whether he agrees with Dana White's aim to hold events as soon as possible.
De La Hoya held one MMA event, headlined by Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. The event did a live gate of $732,000 (5,000 tickets) and Dave Meltzer estimated it did 40k PPV buys at $39.99. It was widely considered to be a financial failure, but the promoter characterized it as a win.
"We dipped our toe in the MMA water with Chuck Liddell against Tito Ortiz and it was a massive success," said De La Hoya, as transcribed by Boxing Scene. "Dana came out and criticized me and ridiculed me but Dana is doing a phenomenal job in defending his sport and growing his sport. He's doing it big and doing it great. I commend him.
"I believe that people are itching to get back to sports to experience that live event. I strongly believe that there is nothing like a sports event like UFC or boxing at the highest level, and I believe people are missing that. I strongly believe that it's a matter of time until we are going to see people filling up those arenas and getting back to the norm."
"Maybe it's an omen, I don't know. Especially boxing, you rely on the international high roller from Asia or the UK to go to Vegas and spend their money and buy a $2500 ringside ticket. Maybe we have to reduce our prices for every event we do and therefore it will create more excitement and more fans to attend our boxing shows. Who knows? Boxing has always been a sport where if you have two superstars, you can charge $5,000 or $10,000 for ringside tickets. Maybe those days are over."