Oscar De La Hoya digs up failed Dana White reality show in scathing attack on UFC boss

UFC CEO Dana White has a long list of incredible business successes on his resume. However, the UFC boss has also been involved in a few projects that flopped, and his long-time nemesis Oscar De La Hoya isn’t going to let him forget it.

De La Hoya, a former boxing champ turned boxing promoter, has been beefing with White for years. The former boxer fired his latest salvo at White soon after we learned the UFC boss will be starting his own boxing promotion with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.

It all happened on Instagram.

De La Hoya had many criticisms of White’s plans to move into boxing. Like many of the UFC CEO’s skeptics, one of his big concerns was fighter pay.

However, the boxing promoter also took a shot at White’s business record, bringing up a long-forgotten reality show the UFC boss was involved in that was cancelled after just one season.

The show was called The Ultimate Surfer. It aired in 2021. It was effectively a facsimile for The Ultimate Fighter — which has now been running for more than 30 seasons — but geared toward the sport of surfing. White served as executive producer for the film. Unfortunately, not even he could make it a hit.

Oscar De La Hoya goes off on Dana White

See De La Hoya’s latest attack on White below.

Oscar De La Hoya just went on a rant about Dana White and the TKO boxing league

@OscarDeLaHoya #UFC #Boxing pic.twitter.com/hRURCi1OeX

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 4, 2025

“TKO’s supposed fighter pay and salaries were leaked a few weeks ago,” De La Hoya said (h/t MMA Mania). “If these are real, holy s**t! Dana is gonna have several problems. No fighter is going to fight for pennies. The majority of their prospects will fight one or two times a year and be forced to survive on minimum pay. And keep in mind, they will be fighting tough fights. Dana says the best must fight the best. So their careers will be short.

“Number two: no PPV fighter will fight for $750,000,” De La Hoya continued. “You’re telling me the Canelos and Ryan Garcias will agree to that pay cut? No! Most importantly, if these numbers are real, the UFC fighters will be so p***ed that the TKO fighters are getting paid so much more than they are. UFC fighters are already disgusted with how little they get paid for putting their lives on the line.”

It was toward the end of his attack on White that De La Hoya finally brought up the Ultimate Surfer. White’s Power Slap project also got a mention.

De La Hoya trashes Dana White for “Ultimate Surfer” flop

“When Dana doesn’t have the funding and business brains in place like the Fertittas and Turki Al-Sheikh. He always fails,” Oscar claimed. “How’s The Ultimate Surfer? Or Power Slap? As for Dana’s character, it speaks for itself. I don’t even have to say anything about a guy who publicly slapped his own wife and whose own mother wrote a book about what a terrible person her son is. It’s available on Amazon if you want to read it yourself.”

While De La Hoya makes a couple of fair points, it would also be unfair not to mention a few of his business failures. The most glaring of those was his brief foray into promoting MMA. The lone MMA card he promoted, headlined by a trilogy between UFC legends Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, was an utter disaster. So much so that he never touched the sport again. Pot, meet kettle.