Oscar De La Hoya told us all that he would not be watching last night’s fight between his former fighter/friend Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga, that he would instead be attending Dana White’s UFC gig down the road in Vegas. De La Hoya also told we fight fans to save our dough and not pay to watch the man he used to promote engage in what he predicted would be “another lame ass fight.”
Well, it turns out De La Hoya was wrong, with last night’s fight being a fun fight, an exciting fight, and a fight that told us plenty about Canelo and Berlanga. Canelo looked better than he has done in some time, even though he didn’t get the desired KO. This had a heck of a lot to do with the fact that “The Chosen One,” as Berlanga is nicknamed, has one heck of a good chin, and some real fighting heart. It was in short a good fight, one worth watching.
Berlanga showed he’s for real and he can come again, while Canelo, at age 34, showed he still has plenty of fire in his belly. What comes next for Canelo we are all keen to find out – will it be a return fight with Dmitry Bivol (if Bivol defeats Artur Beterbiev next month), or could it be Terence Crawford (who was there last night at the T-Mobile and called Canelo out after the Mexican star had pounded out his UD win over Berlanga?) Or will it be someone else on Cinco de Mayo? Again, we will wait and see, but Canelo, for now, remains the face of boxing.
But De La Hoya launched into Canelo after last night’s fight, with the Golden Boy head adopting an ‘I told you so’ approach. De La Hoya suggests last night’s fight was boring and a waste of money.
“I told you so. You should have saved your heard earned money,” De La Hoya wrote on social media, with several sleeping emojis attached to his words. “Wow so he threw more than 3 punches a round.”
In fact, Canelo threw a heck of a lot more than three punches a round, his power punch connect at 50 -percent at one stage in the fight. But De La Hoya cannot give Canelo any credit whatsoever, and as a result the former multi-weight champ comes across as bitter, very bitter. It’s a shame. De La Hoya used to have more class than this.
If De La Hoya had been promoting last night’s fight, if he was still with Canelo, he would no doubt have been telling us all today what a great event he put on. But today, and seemingly for all time, De La Hoya and Canelo are sworn enemies.
What do YOU think – was last night’s Canelo W12 Berlanga fight a snoozer or a doozy?
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