(Photo credit: Steve Lopez) By Nick Hagen: It’s unbelievable timing for Oscar De La Hoya to book himself into rehab only five days before the mega fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. 44-0 and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 42-0-1
De La Hoya has voluntarily booked himself into a clinic, for yet undisclosed reasons. (However he has a well documented history of alcoholic and substance abuse).
Many boxing fans, me included, are asking the question; why De La Hoya couldn’t of waited until next week, to make such a decision.
Alvarez already has a mountain to climb this coming weekend, if he is going to dethrone the P4P number 1 star. Alvarez especially needs the backing and support, from his family, close friends, trainers and in so many ways De La Hoya his own Promoter.
Alvarez probably feels incredibly let down by De La Hoya. After all this is the promoter who has been telling us all how he has ‘given Alvarez the blueprint, on how to beat Mayweather’ and how ‘Mayweather is going to feel Alvarez’s power’ etc etc.
Conspirators are saying that De La Hoya is getting cold feet about this upcoming fight and that possibly deep down doesn’t have as much faith in his young champion, as he has lead us all to believe. If all of this is true, why didn’t De La Hoya, just pull out with his direct involvement at a much earlier stage, this would have then given Canelo the chance to regroup himself for the task ahead.
If the conspiracy’s are true, then as a boxer Alvarez would have picked the signs if he felt that De La Hoya was doubting his victory on Saturday and you can only begin to imagine what this must be doing to his confidence level.
All the true champions will tell you that it’s important to have as little distraction as possible, leading up to a championship fight and that all the focus needs to be on what happens within that ring and nothing outside.
Some people will disagree with what I’m saying and dismiss it just a minor issue that Canelo has to deal with. However it’s important to remember that Canelo is only 23 and has the weight and expectation of the Mexican nation and his many fans around the world. To achieve his dream, it would have helped him tremendously, If De La Hoya was supporting him the whole way. After all De La Hoya is one of the few boxers who know what it’s like to fight on such a big occasion and against such an intimidating opponent in Mayweather.
Comments are closed.