Oscar De La Hoya Says He Paid GGG Millions of His Own Money to Fight Canelo

John Locher/Associated Press

The rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin is on, and boxing fans can thank Oscar De La Hoya.

De La Hoya recently revealed to TMZ Sports that he chipped in some of his own money to satisfy Golovkin: "I actually came out with my own money to bridge the gap and make this fight happen. GGG wanted a bigger piece of the pie. It was a matter of a few million dollars. I couldn't get it from Canelo's side because he was gonna stick to his guns on how much he's making, so I had to come up with the difference."

De La Hoya, Alvarez's promoter, noted that he did so for the fans—and also himself.

Per ESPN's Dan Rafael, Golovkin was initially looking for a 50-50 split. When that didn't happen, he gave Alvarez and Golden Boy Promotions a "take it or leave it" deal: "It was the principle of the matter, 45 percent for me, not 35 or 42.5, just 45. Good deal, very happy."

That's a much closer split than the last go-round. Alvarez had a 70-30 advantage in the September 2017 fight.

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Of course, Golovkin had some leverage this time. Not only do many believe he won the last meeting, but Alvarez was also handed a six-month suspension in April for a failed drug test (positive for Clenbuterol on March 5). That ban nixed the scheduled May 5 rematch.

Golovkin (38-0-1) and Alvarez (49-1-2) will once again square off Sept. 15, nearly one year to the date of their last meeting. Last year's bout controversially ended in a draw.