De La Hoya Says No Alvarez v Charlo Fight
Well it looks like Golden Boy Promotions top dog Oscar De La Hoya has once again managed to ignite a fair amount of controversy. He accomplished this during an interview with FightHype when questioned about the likelihood of an Alvarez v Charlo bout. He insisted that the “train had left”. Going a step further, the Golden Boy claimed that the fight was not happening because of Team Charlo.
FACT OR FICTION?
This news is a bit curious coming from De La Hoya. WBC world middleweight champion Jermall “Hit Man” Charlo (30-0, 22 KO’s) has been openly pursuing a fight with WBC middleweight ‘franchise champion’ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KO’s) for years.
In fact, a huge chunk of the boxing community feels as though Alvarez is openly avoiding both Charlo and WBO world middleweight champion Demetrius “Boo-Boo” Andrade (28-0, 17 KO’s). On a number of occasions, Alvarez has publicly stated that for various reasons he is not interested in those bouts.
This is why the notion that a massive offer from Golden Boy Promotions was turned down has thrown a number of people off balance.
“We offered Charlo a pretty lucrative deal to fight Canelo last year and I don’t know who turned it down. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t Charlo, but I don’t know who did, but that train already left and it’s unfortunate. But Canelo has many fighters to fight from 160 to 75. We’ll decide in the next couple of days.”
WHY IS CHARLO NO LONGER AN OPTION?
While on the topic of Charlo, De La Hoya never went into detail about the amount of this ‘lucrative deal’ or if there was a counter offer suggested. It was also somewhat strange that this fight was being treated as completely dead in the water. The Golden Boy insisted that Canelo still has no dance partner for his standard Cinco de Mayo weekend fight date.
If this is such a great fight, both men are available and provided De La Hoya believes that Charlo himself wants the bout, why not revisit this option? Canelo was already given a great deal of suspicious ‘side eye’ when Team Alvarez petitioned to get, and were granted, WBC ‘franchise champion’ status. As ‘franchise champion’ Canelo is neither mandated to fight anyone, nor can he lose his title in the ring.
In the perception of a great deal of fight fans, this was Canelo clearly maneuvering away from the stiff competition of his fellow middleweight champions. Not only is Alvarez v Charlo a great fight, it would put to bed all confusion about who the true WBC champion really is. Now, with this mysteriously sent offer, the perception that Alvarez wants nothing to do with Charlo will only strengthen in many boxing circles.
It will be informative and interesting to see how Team Charlo responds to De La Hoya’s explosive revelation.
By: Bakari Simpson
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