"He steals from fighters" - Canelo Alvarez rips into promoter-turned-enemy Oscar De La Hoya after almost coming to blows on stage
Canelo Alvarez was firing off verbal volleys after things almost seemingly got physical with his former promoter at a pre-fight press conference.
Oscar De La Hoya now promotes Jaime Munguia who readies to fight Alvarez on May 4 for the latter's undisputed super middleweight crown. 'The Golden Boy' fired off some disparaging remarks to Alvarez about past failed drug tests among a myriad of negative comments to the reigning king at 168 pounds.
In a firey yet succinct monologue after getting up from his seat to encroach toward De La Hoya before security got in between the two, Alvarez said:
"He's a f****** a******. He steals from fighters. That's what he do. F****** p****. Mother f*****."
Check out Canelo Alvarez's expletive-laden tirade against Oscar De La Hoya below:
Canelo Alvarez and his history with Oscar De La Hoya
Canelo Alvarez split from Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions to explore free agency in late 2020. Earlier that year in September, the 33-year-old was suing De La Hoya, as well as his broadcaster at the time DAZN after their seismic agreement fell apart.
Alvarez reportedly signed a $365 million agreement for 11 fights. A $15 million purse to fight Rocky Fielding reportedly kicked things off with subsequent paydays coming in at $35 million for Alvarez.
After reports that DAZN tried to radically reduce the paydays for the Mexican after three fights on the deal played a role in leading to the split and residual bad blood with De La Hoya.
Per ESPN, Alvarez was wanted for a third fight with one of his more famous rivals GGG, Gennadiy Golovkin, during Mexican Independence Day weekend in 2019. This was said to have been expressed by both DAZN and De La Hoya at the time. The prior two fights between Alvarez and Golovkin transpired over that weekend in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Some posited that Alvarez wasn't interested in this timeline or as the language of the lawsuit seemed to imply, he was kept in the dark about the whole idea. Some cracks began to emerge in the summer of 2019 between Alvarez and De La Hoya as the fighter felt his then-promoter kept making promises to the broadcaster without clearing them first with him.
It seemed like DAZN also grew frustrated with De La Hoya at the time of the reported misrepresentation of Alvarez's approval and agreement for plans. It seemed things had largely cooled off between the two in recent years since but the powder keg of Alvarez-De La Hoya has been reignited.