Six-weight world champion turned promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, has looked ahead to the upcoming bout between his former poster boy, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, and undisputed super welterweight champion, Jermell Charlo.
Canelo holds all four belts at super-middleweight and has been linked to clashes with David Benavidez, Dmitry Bivol and Jermall Charlo, brother of Jermell, in recent months after a lacklustre 2022.
However, the Mexican has instead opted for a battle between two undisputed champions, and will face Jermell Charlo at the end of September.
Following the announcement, De La Hoya, who promoted Alvarez until their well-documented fall-out in 2020, admitted that the clash is a ‘win-win’ for Charlo, whom he believes to have the perfect excuse if he is defeated for the second time of his career, he told Fight Hub.
“Moving up two weight-classes, first of all I take my hat off to Charlo for doing that, I understand that it is a great pay-day for him and he obviously took that into consideration when making the decision to fight Canelo, but it’s going to be a tough task. I mean two weight divisions is historical, if he wins, and if he loses he has the perfect excuse.”
“It’s a win-win for Charlo I believe, but I don’t think that Canelo wins anything by beating a Charlo.”
“I don’t think that it makes Canelo look bad, I just think that it’s not a win-win for Canelo. That’s it. It’s almost like a kind of ‘alright, let me win this fight and sharpen up my tools, so then I can face Benavidez and the tougher guys’.”
The historic bout will be the first all-undisputed match-up of the four-belt era in men’s boxing and will take place on September 30 in Las Vegas.