Oscar De La Hoya “Let’s get one thing clear here, We didn’t choose to sell [Santa Cruz’s] contract.”

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maxresdefault-9In a recent interview with Boxing Channel boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya made it clear that he did not choose to sell undefeated super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz’s (29 – 0 – 1) contract to Al Haymon. Quite the opposite actually, as De La Hoya insists that he was forced into a buyout after Santa Cruz’s people did not like the match-up against Rigondeaux that Golden Boy was working on.

“Let’s get one thing clear here… We didn’t choose to sell [Santa Cruz’s] contract. I started negotiating Leo Santa Cruz versus Rigondeaux and uhh, in the contract, there was a buyout clause and so all of a sudden that buyout clause was enforced and so uh, we got bought out!”

For clarity, De La Hoya was then asked to confirm that Santa Cruz’s people decided on a buyout because they did not like the matchup with super bantamweight world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (15 – 0). De La Hoya did not hesitate: “Exactly.”

Unfortunately, De La Hoya would not specify exactly who made that call, but the assumption is that it was Al Haymon. Leo Santa Cruz is represented by Al Haymon, and it is no secret that Haymon keeps tabs on his fighters and has a hand in all of their moves. It would be hard to believe that this decision would have come from any person besides Haymon himself.

You can’t fault Haymon. Leo Santa Cruz would look bad in a fight with Rigondeaux. Very bad. So bad in fact, that it would not shock me one bit if news came out that Golden Boy wanted to make the Rigondeaux fight to damage Santa Cruz’s stock because they knew that their time with him was running out. We will probably never know that side of things, but if one thing has been made perfectly clear, it is this: even when De La Hoya tries to make him look bad, Haymon still comes out of it looking like he is the smartest guy in the room… complete with another fighter from Golden Boy added to his ever growing stable.