Six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya has made no bones about his continuous rivalry with Canelo Alvarez in recent years but now the legendary welterweight champion has took things one step further – declaring that he will not even watch Canelo’s upcoming contest, even as a hater.
Canelo used to fight under De La Hoya’s promotional banner of ‘Golden Boy’ but the pair famously split in 2020 with an ugly contract dispute birthing a hatred between De La Hoya and the poster boy of his business.
After numerous online exchanges, Alvarez and ‘Golden Boy’ came face to face at the press conference for Canelo’s latest outing – where he faced one of the new faces of Golden Boy Promotions in Jaime Munguia. As could be expected, the feud between Canelo and his former promoter grabbed the headlines, as De La Hoya was accused of stealing money from the pound-for-pound sensation before the duo were separated by security.
In the fight that followed, Canelo successfully outpointed his compatriot to retain the undisputed super-middleweight title but he has since been stripped of the IBF crown – leaving him as a unified champion ahead of next weekend’s clash with Edgar Berlanga.
On Instagram, De La Hoya slammed the fight and labelled Canelo-Berlanga as a ‘snooze fest’ before stating that he would instead be attending the UFC event taking place around the corner.
“So we are a week away from the boxing match that nobody asked for and the UFC event that everybody will be watching! Canelo is fighting Berlanga – another snoozefest! They are trying to sell a pay-per-view for $90 and $500 minimum in person? It is just robbery at this point to pay for another lame Canelo fight that always goes the distance against a sub-par opponent.
“I will actually be attending the UFC event at the sphere instead. I love the sport of boxing more than anything and I will be watching boxing matches anywhere at any time, even if it is a simple sparring session or two bums fighting in the street. So the idea that I am choosing to attend the UFC and support Dana White instead of Canelo tells you everything you need to know.”
The UFC have made a bold move by going head-to-head with a Canelo Alvarez pay-per-view but the latter’s run of five consecutive fights going the distance has admittedly dampened the interest for the man who was recently seen as the face of the sport. However, Berlanga’s run of 16 first-round knockouts between 2016 and 2021 prove that he will attempt to make the affair an entertaining one, even if he too has gone the distance in five of the six bouts thereafter.
Canelo-Berlanga will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on September 14th, whilst UFC 305 will go ahead at the nearby Sphere and will be headlined by Sean O’Malley’s attempted defence of the UFC Bantamweight Title against Merab Dvalishvili.
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