By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com Boxing Writer
Oscar De La Hoya let his hands go this week when he embroiled himself in a verbal sparring match with his former protege, Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez.
The two went toe-to-toe during a press conference ahead of Canelo’s annual Cinco de Mayo Weekend Vegas residency at T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip.
The Golden Boy Promotions president isn’t even scheduled to square up against Canelo this Saturday. That task is for 27-year-old Jaime Munguia (43-0) when the fellow Mexicans clash for Canelo’s super middleweight title. De La Hoya’s brief, but effective, tirade came down to two objectives — sell a fight, and settle a past grievance.
“Jaime has always dared to be great. This is full circle for him. When he was 21, he volunteered to step in against GGG, and Canelo failed two drug tests,” De La Hoya said before the Mexican superstar started approaching his old promoter, only for security to pull him away.
As for the acrimony, the roots of the discord can be traced back to Canelo’s contentious departure from his monumental $360 million contract with Golden Boy and DAZN. This fight marks the first time Canelo and De La Hoya have worked together on the same promotion since that bitter split in 2020. De La Hoya is now contracted with Mungia as his lead promoter.
Canelo didn’t hold back in his response. “He tried to steal money, and he’s a f—ing a—hole, that’s what I said,” Canelo stated bluntly. “He’s a f—king a—hole. He’s trying to keep the attention for himself, not for Munguia. He’s a f—ing a—hole. He tries to steal from his fighters; that’s what he does.”
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At the start of fight week, the event generated minimal buzz, surprising for an event headlined by a man who many consider the face of boxing.
None of the social media hashtags were trending, and the arena wasn’t sold out. In 2023, Canelo was listed as one of the 10 highest earning athletes by Forbes Magazine. The boxer is behind sports drink maker Yaoca, fitness app I Can, gas station chain Canelo Energy, Canelo Team clothing line, and a branded credit card. Last September, he launched VMC, a canned cocktail brand.
For all of that bank, the soon to be 34-year-old can’t carry the sport alone.
Boxing’s insistence on burdening fans with back-to-back, inflated pay-per-view costs has been hard to overcome with recent events such as the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia bout priced at $69.99 just two weeks ago. A month prior, a reshuffled fight between Tim Tszyu and Fundora with significantly less star power also came with a $69.99 price tag.
De La Hoya is a game dance partner. “Hey, it’s fight week, and I’m a promoter. My job is to sell a fight and get in his head. I see it worked,” said De La Hoya. Mission accomplished. The arena is not only closer to capacity, single seat prices have increased from $200 two weeks ago to $486 for the worst seats in the house on the day of the fight.
In reality, styles don’t make fights; marketing makes fights. Master marketer and UFC fighter Conor McGregor also pounced at the moment, suggesting that the two settle their differences with him as a lead promoter. “I’d love these two [to] go at it [in the] Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. Take off the gloves and fight, b****!” The comment was made on the heels of McGregor being announced as a new part-owner of the BKFC promotion.
The new resident of the MacDonald Highlands community in Henderson, Nevada, has settled on a different match with Canelo and has fired off a cease and desist letter alleging defamation.
“We cannot ignore Canelo’s past transgressions,” De La Hoya remarked, his words reverberating through the boxing world. “I’m definitely going to sue for defamation,” De La Hoya told ESPN. “Imagine the damage it can do to my reputation. Imagine what it can do to my business to fighters [who] are going to believe that.”
But amidst the drama, the show must go on.
T-Mobile Arena, celebrating the tenth anniversary of its May 1, 2014 groundbreaking, has been the backdrop for some of his most lucrative battles, including Canelo’s record-breaking clashes against Gennady Golovkin, which saw a live gate of over $27 million. For those unable to score a seat in the arena for the fight between Alvarez and Muguia, pay-per-view will run a cost of $89.99 and can be ordered on DAZN, Prime Video, or PPV.com.