There has certainly been no love lost between Canelo Alvarez and former promoter Oscar De La Hoya in the build-up to Canelo’s showdown with Jaime Munguia this weekend, and tensions boiled over during a fiery press conference this evening.
Canelo faces Munguia at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, in an event broadcast live on Amazon Prime PPV and DAZN PPV.
It sees Alvarez once again involved with De La Hoya due to Munguia’s promoter being Golden Boy Promotions. De La Hoya guided the career of Canelo up until a bitter split back in 2020, and the two have been extremely hostile to one another since.
The pair had plenty to say about each other during the launch press conference earlier this year, and that bad blood continued to the fight week press conference on Wednesday, with the two men having to be separated in video captured by Boxing Social.
It began when De La Hoya took to the podium and called out Canelo for the disrespect he feels he has been shown by his former fighter.
“Golden Boy built Canelo Alvarez. The company you fought under for decades has one name, and it’s mine. So put some f**king respect on it.
“Jaime has always dared to be great. This is full circle for him. When he was 21 he volunteered to step in against GGG when Canelo failed two drugs test. Jaime wasn’t allowed to fulfil his dream in 2018, and Saturday he will do that and be world champion.”
De La Hoya referenced the drugs tests that Canelo failed that delayed his planned fight with Golovkin in 2018, with Munguia offering to step in at the time but denied the chance, after the commission deemed him not yet at the level of ‘GGG’.
Canelo then fired back at his former promoter, accusing him of mistreating fighters, and of trying to take the limelight away from Munguia.
“He tried to steal money. He’s a f**king a**hole. He tries to keep the attention for him, not for Munguia. He steals from his fighters, that’s what he does.”
De La Hoya responded by telling Canelo to focus on his fight, with comparisons already being made to the mind games battle that De La Hoya was recently part of, where Ryan Garcia upset Devin Haney.
Garcia seemed to try his best to throw Haney off his game in the build-up due to his antics, and it may well have played a big factor in the fight, with Haney knocked down three times on his way to suffering a huge upset defeat.
With just a few days to go until fight night, Canelo will have to ensure his mind is fully focused on Munguia, as the pair prepare to do battle on Saturday.
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