Oscar De La Hoya Talks Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and More
Former six-weight world champion Oscar de la Hoya has dismissed claims made by Floyd Mayweather that there is still racism prominent in boxing.
In an interview with ESPN Deportes, the Golden Boy touched upon a host of topics, including Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s plans for the year and a potential rematch between the Mexican fighter and Miguel Cotto.
But his most intriguing views came when talk turned to Mayweather’s suggestions that the sweet science is laced with racism, per Miguel Rivera of Boxing Scene:
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"There is no racism in boxing at all. If you're a champion or not a champion, people love you or they won't, period.
Look, if you're going to run and not provide the people with a show, you are not going to be wanted. But if you're going to knock people out and give the people a show, the people will worship you and racism has nothing to do with it.
"
Mayweather told Ben Thompson of FightHype “I truly believe that racism still exists in the sport of boxing” in a recent interview.
The man known as Money retired from the sport last year with a perfect professional record of 49 wins from 49 bouts, but he was often criticised for his defensive style of fighting.
In the past, De La Hoya, who was beaten by Mayweather via split decision in one of the most hotly anticipated fights of all time back in 2007, has been one of the biggest critics of his rival’s brand of fighting.
The Golden Boy actually took to social media in the wake of Mayweather’s final fight, a landslide points win over Andre Berto:
One of the men mentioned in that particular post was Alvarez, who seems set to be one of the brightest stars of 2016. He beat Cotto via a decision in his previous bout, meaning he now holds the lineal, The Ring and WBC middleweight titles.
After beating such a high-profile competitor via a unanimous decision, there seem to be plenty of big opportunities for the 25-year-old on the horizon in 2016.
However, given some questioned whether Canelo did actually beat Cotto in their November tussle, De La Hoya didn’t rule out the prospect of a rematch between the two, per ESPN Deportes (h/t Rivera):
"I think it would be very interesting because there were some comments and there were some people who thought Cotto won.
For me, if there is a rematch—Canelo knocks him out, and he would knock him out without any problems. It would be interesting but obviously we're going to talk to Canelo and his team [about all of the possible options for May 7] .
"
It’s a fight the fans would surely love to see, especially, as Rivera noted, at the expense of Canelo taking on a less illustrious name like Gabriel Rosado or Willie Monroe Jr.
However, the Bad Left Hook Twitter feed is unsure why so many were unhappy with the judges’ cards for Canelo-Cotto, which read 119-109, 118-110 and 117-111 in favour of the former:
The win for Alvarez immediately turned fight fans’ thoughts to a possible showdown with middleweight king Gennady Golovkin later in the year.
Golovkin, who holds the WBA Super, IBF and WBC (interim) belts at the moment, has yet to be defeated in his career and has won his last 21 fights in a row via knockout, the most recent being David Lemieux, who was decimated by the power and accuracy of the Kazakh’s jab.
Nevertheless, De La Hoya feels Canelo has what it takes to halt a man who is considered to be the most powerful pound-for-pound puncher in boxing, per ESPN Deportes (h/t James Blears of Boxing Scene):
"Gennady needs to come forward, pressure, throw a lot of punches and he'll have to be in great shape. Canelo is strong, fast, he's younger than Gennady, and Canelo is getting better in every fight.
We feel this is a fight like Hearns vs. Duran. Canelo has the style and the technique to disappoint a lot of Golovkin fans when they face each other...and they will!
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It’s a fight that fans around the world would love to see eventually and at this juncture the bout seems to be inevitable. The brief discussion about styles from the Golden Boy is how plenty feel the fight will go, but Canelo’s own willingness to be aggressive could see him susceptible to some of Golovkin’s heavy shots.
With Mayweather gone, there were worries about whether there were enough characters on the boxing scene to take his place.
And while neither Golovkin or Alvarez are as brash as Money in terms of personality, the strides they’ve made recently as fighters certainly bodes well for plenty of exciting action for years to come.
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