Oscar De La Hoya is not optimistic that boxing fans will get to see Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight Jaime Munguia in May.
De La Hoya was recently in New York City promoting a bout between WBC junior welterweight champion Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia, set for April 20 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
With the announcement of Alvarez’s split with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), one might think Munguia, De La Hoya’s fighter, might be in the passenger seat for a big Canelo fight. But De La Hoya, in an interview with The MMA Hour, shared another view.
“Canelo holds all the cards here – that is the problem,” De La Hoya said. “It is creating all this mess that we are living now.”
In fact, the most problematic card involved is likely the relationship between the 33-year-old Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) and the Golden Boy promoter himself. De La Hoya, who had been Alvarez’s longtime promoter until the fighter left the organization in 2020, has not been in contact with the fighter since. De La Hoya notes that Alvarez’s star power and matchmaking sway further complicate a potential matchup with Munguia, 27, for May 4 and Canelo’s standing date for a Cinco de Mayo fight.
“Everybody wants him on their platform, whether it is DAZN or whether it is Amazon, that PBC has,” De La Hoya said. “Somehow I have to get to Canelo. I don’t know how I am going to do it – but I am going to do it.”
Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs), who stopped John Ryder in January – his first fight working with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach – remains untested against elite competition, but his record, name recognition and Mexican heritage would seem to make him a worthy opponent for Canelo in a Cinco de Mayo fight.
But De La Hoya says he has been in the boxing business long enough to have learned to trust nothing.
“In my 22 years of being in business, being around boxing forever, you just cannot believe anything you read, anything you see,” he said. “Until you see it on paper and it is signed and sealed, you just cannot believe it.”
When asked about PBC, which promoted Canelo’s most recent bout – a unanimous decision win over Jermell Charlo last September – De La Hoya was frank:
“A sinking ship,” he said. “It is a sinking ship.”
