Many deemed the vocal brawl between De La Hoya and Dana White as the fight within the fight, but De La Hoya was missing in action throughout most of the matchup's race to the finish line Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Garcia and De La Hoya have had a difficult relationship for well over seven years, and it reared its ugly head again on the night Garcia scored a career-best win in defense of his WBC welterweight title for the first time with a scintillating performance.

"I thought he was gonna be here," Garcia said during his post-fight press conference. "They told me that he had a seat. I actually invited him to walk out with me. I thought that was gonna be iconic. Everybody was asking where he was, and then just to have him walk out with me, I think it would have been special. But it is what it is. It didn't happen. I'm here just to do my job. I don't really try to think of that too much. But, you know, would it have been cool to see him there? Yeah."

Garcia has one more fight left on his Golden Boy contract.

White, who also has a well-documented history of disputes with De La Hoya, opined on the series of events as the lead promoter of the event.

"We'll see how this whole thing plays out [with Garcia's free agency]. He has one more fight with De La Hoya," White said.

"[De La Hoya] wasn't [here tonight]. And I heard there are some rumblings. Let me explain something to you. I don't like De La Hoya, and De La Hoya doesn't like me. We would never, and I would never disrespect him and say, 'Oh, he shows up here, and we treat him like s—t' I wouldn't call him on the phone and say, 'hey, don't f——g show up to this event because we're not gonna treat you well.' That was not the case. Why he didn't show up, I don't know."

De La Hoya was active on social media over the last 24 hours, saying he was in Las Vegas to crash the party and had a "surprise" in store.

In response, Golden Boy PR Jane Murcia, wrote on X: "I want to clarify this because there seems to be some confusion, and it genuinely makes me sad to think Ryan is under the impression that Oscar did not want to walk him out.

"Yes, Ryan invited Oscar to walk him out ALONG WITH Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. That was the “big surprise” ODLH teased on his IG. The morning of the fight, however, we received a call from Ryan’s team informing us that Ryan had changed his mind and no longer wanted ODLH to walk him out. We were told he wanted Rey Mysterio and Barrera to walk him out instead."

Garcia (26-2, 21 KOs), meanwhile, recounted the crushing right hand that debilitated and dropped Benn (25-2, 14 KOs) before stopping him in the following sequence soon after.

"I think it went exactly how I imagined it," Garcia said. "He decided to put pressure on me right away and kind of banking on the idea that I may just start to fold somehow and maybe get a little tired. But you can't jump in like that. It's not the move."