Canelo Alvarez says that promoter Oscar De La Hoya is bitter that he left Golden Boy Promotions because he was his company’s “diamond” and the company isn’t the same.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey & Esther Lin/Premier Boxing Champions)
De La Hoya and Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) exchanged words during today’s final press conference for Canelo’s fight against Jaime Munguia this Saturday night on PPV.
De La Hoya’s Calculated Provocation
Oscar had a written speech that he read word for word during the press conference, and some of it was clearly aimed at angering Canelo. It worked to perfection. Canelo got upset and brought some badly needed life to the final press conference, which was pretty dull until then.
It was a smart move by De La Hoya to get Canelo upset because it’s created more interest from fans in Saturday’s event on Amazon Prime Video PPV and DAZN PPV from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Some of De La Hoya’s words were a little below the belt, but he may have felt that he needed to go nuclear to get Canelo angry enough to spring to life.
Canelo Fires Back: “Golden Boy is Not the Same”
“He’s mad I left Golden Boy. I’m the diamond in Golden Boy. Golden Boy is not the same without me. I don’t really give a s*** about Oscar De La Hoya,” said Canelo Alvarez about his clash with De La Hoya during today’s final press conference.
Golden Boy does have Ryan Garcia, who seems to be on his way to filling the shoes left vacant by Canelo when he departed Golden Boy in 2020. It’s taken four years for Golden Boy to find a replacement for Canelo, but it looks like they’ve got someone who can be their new star.
Experts Weigh In
“I think he wanted to wind him up and make the fight a little bit bigger,” said Mungua’s coach, Freddie Roach, to Fighthype about what went on between promoter Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez during today’s final press conference.
“Everybody has a point where they’re slowing down, and I feel he’s at that point now, and my guys not,” said Roach to Sean Zittel about Canelo. “I might send him out to jump on him. The knockouts come quick.
“I think this is going to come down to who takes the better shot. I think both of them have tremendous chins. Both of them have never been down,” said Sergio Mora to Sean Zittel’s YouTube channel. “The thing about Canelo is he gets stronger and carries his weight. He knocked out Kovalev in the 11th round.”