Oscar De La Hoya Says He’ll Have Canelo Opponent’s Selected by Next Week
At this point, any one with eyes can see that Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) has had a monstrously problematic time finding a proper opponent for WBA super world middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KO’s). So much so that it is now a real possibility that the highly skilled redhead might have to forgo his traditional September Mexican Independence fight date.
All was well in paradise until WBO super middleweight champion “Superb” Billy Joe Saunders (29-0, 14 KO’s) unexpectedly pulled out of their would-be fight. With the slick-talking southpaw from the UK out of the picture, it’s been a long stretch of gloomy, bumpy road for GBP.
Regardless of the late date, or behind the scenes complications, Oscar De La Hoya is faithful that his biggest attraction will carry on with the big show. And it sounds like he has a card or two left up his sleeve.
WE GOT SOMETHING IN THE WORKS
Following the curve-ball thrown by Saunders, there have been a number of potential candidates unearthed. Names such as Willie “El Mongoose” Monroe Jr (24-3, 6 KO’s), Sergiy “The Technician” Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KO’s), John “The Gorilla” Ryder (28-5, 16 KO’s) and WBA super world middleweight champion Callum “Mundo” Smith (27-0, 19 KO’s) have all been considered.
Yet, despite the generous number of potential foes, none have been finalized. When questioned on a recent Sport Illustrated Boxing podcast as to why this is, De La Hoya attributes the difficulty to boxers’ fantastic financial expectations. Thankfully, the GBP top dog believes there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“Look, we have pending meetings this week. We are working every single day, day in day out to get this done. And like you said, fighters these days, they price themselves out because they don’t want to fight. They price themselves out because they have advisors whispering in their ears that they are more valuable than what they really are.”
“The fact that you fight Canelo doesn’t that mean you should be making triple or quadruple the money that you are making now. And you have to take into consideration the pandemic. It’s different times now and fighters have to realize that they have to take pay cuts. And so it’s been a very difficult process, but we feel very confident that we will have something in writing, something nailed down, in the next few days.”
“Like I said, we have pending phone calls and meetings with Team Canelo […] so we feel that we can get something done hopefully by next week.”
TIME WILL TELL
Hopefully, De La Hoya’s promise of identifying a confirmed opponent by the end of next week will pan out. Yet, even if it doesn’t, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time a promoter sold a line when under the gun! Guess we’ll just have play the waiting game and tune in next week to find out.
By: Bakari Simpson
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