Canelo Alvarez and promoter Oscar De La Hoya came close to blows during Wednesday’s final press conference. Boxing expert Sergio Mora gave his view on the cause of the beef between De La Hoya and his former fighter, Canelo.
Mora believes the animosity between Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) and De La Hoya was real, not the fake kind.
As Mora points out, the superstar Canelo came out of character after De La Hoya appeared to purposefully rile him by reading from a prepared statement.
It’s questionable whether De La Hoya wrote the speech he gave it was hitting on all the points that would historically anger Canelo, like mentioning his past drug tests. That alone was enough to get Canelo to hit the 10-scale with his anger.
Real Resentment
“I never seen Canelo get out of character like that. You could tell there’s some resentment there between Oscar,” said Sergio Mora to Sean Zittel about the alternation between promoter Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez during the final press conference.
“That’s great promotion. Canelo is not going to back up, You got two fighters. That wasn’t fake for the cameras. That was real. He [Canelo] basically said, ‘You steal from your fighters. You’re not responsible and you have problems outside of the ring.’ Yeah, he called him derogatory names. He just let him have it.”
It was good promotion for Canelo and De La Hoya to go back and forth, because Jaime Munguia was no help at all during the press conference, saying nice stuff, and trying not to step on Alvarez’s toes.
It’s been like that during the whole promotion. De La Hoya has been doing the hard work of creating interest in the fight, and not really doing a great job of it until Wednesday.
De La Hoya’s Legacy vs. Canelo’s
“Oscar De La Hoya fought absolutely everybody, just like Canelo, but he has that gold medal. So he represented a country,” said Mora.
De La Hoya did more with his career than Canelo, but Alvarez was likely too young to see the great things Oscar did to appreciate his legacy and realize he was the real Face of Boxing.
Benavidez: The Next Big Challenge
“Now, Benavidez is the one down. There’s always going to be another monster in line, Canelo, if you’re him, you understand this. You’ve been doing this half your life. There’s always going to be someone around the corner,” said Mora.
I don’t think Canelo is going to fight David Benavidez, but Mora seems to think he will. Canelo wants a lot of money for that fight, and he’s not going to want to fight a glorified cruiserweight.
Benavidez’s size is absurd, even for a light heavyweight. Benavidez has been killing himself to make 168, and now he’s going to do the same thing for the 175-lb weight class.
“He just needs to mind his business, keep collecting these checks, and keep putting on these huge shows for his people. This is great for boxing. Boxing is winning right now,” said Mora about Canelo.
Benavidez Fight Inevitable?
“Yeah, there’s too much pride and machismo. Benavidez is the last man standing, and that can put him over the finish line of all-time greatness. I think he’s going to have to do it,” said Mora about Canelo being pressured into fighting David Benavidez.
Mora is wrong about Benavidez being the “last man standing.” There’s also David Morrell, but he’s given up trying to get a fight against Canelo. Like Benavidez, Morrell has moved up to 175 in search of greener pastures.
“Benavidez, he might have the upper hand on that one,” said Mora.
Read the full article here
