Posted on 04/06/2024
By: Sean Crose:
“A lot of these young lions are right behind him,” Oscar De Lay Hoya said of Canelo Alvarez to Fight Hype at a media workout in Los Angeles to promote the Devin Haney-Ryan Garcia bout later this month, “trying to take that throne, trying to take that crown away from Canelo. It’s a matter of time. Obviously, only time will tell. You have these young kids who are 26, 27, years old. Canelo’s already been there, done that. That’s why I’m saying, May fourth might by the passing of the torch. It could be.”
For those who don’t know, May fourth is the day Canelo will be taking on fellow Mexican Jaime Munguia in defense of his undisputed super middleweight championship. There are those who feel Canelo should be facing menacing contender David Benavidez instead, an issue De La Hoya was questioned about. Canelo, after all, reportedly said he would only face Benavidez for a truly massive sum of money. “That’s just another way to say I don’t want to fight him,” De La Hoya said, via Fight Hub. “That’s the bottom line. That’s basically it. I don’t want to fight him. It’s classic Boxing 101. You don’t want to fight somebody, just outbid yourself, out price yourself. “
There was a time, of course, when Canelo and De La Hoya were perhaps the most powerful duo in boxing. Now, however, the fighter and promoter are on bad terms. De La Hoya explained why to Fight Hype. “One day,” De La Hoya said, “a reporter asked me: ‘You think Canelo needs another trainer?’, and I said to the reporter I had seven trainers in my career. I learned from every trainer, (every trainer) taught me something new. Maybe Eddie Reynoso could use a little help. Well guess what? They (Team Canelo) called me not being loyal. He (Canelo) said I wasn’t loyal, that how could I do this? So that’s how it started.”
De La Hoya, however, clearly doesn’t buy Canelo’s loyalty argument. “I mean, come on,” he said, “who in the hell is the unloyal one here, jumping from promoter to promoter, network to network? Whose the unfaithful one here? Whose the disloyal one here? And have I received a thank you? Never. When I got him the biggest deal of his life ? Did I receive a thank you? Never. So whose the disloyal one?” Of course, fighters have had breaks with their teams since at least the 1920s when heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey broke with his colorful manager, Doc Kearns. Looked at objectively, the Canelo-De Ha Hoya break is ultimately one of a seemingly endless line of publicized professional fallouts.