De La Hoya tells Mayweather to fight Canelo again

By Boxing News - 02/23/2017 - Comments

Image: De La Hoya tells Mayweather to fight Canelo again

By Dan Ambrose: In what appears to be an attempted to create more buzz for the May 6th fight between Mexican stars Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has offered Floyd Mayweather Jr. a rematch with the 27-year-old Canelo.

Mayweather already beat Canelo by a 12 round majority decision in 2013 in catch-weight fight at 152 pounds. De La Hoya believes the outcome would be different in a rematch between Mayweather and Canelo. De La Hoya thinks his fighter Canelo would beat Mayweather by a knockout in a rematch.

Mayweather will be turning 40-years-old this Friday. He’s now retired from boxing, and he doesn’t want to continue fighting against boxers. Instead, Mayweather wants to fight MMA star Conor McGregor in a boxing event. Mayweather and McGregor have been talking back and forth about fighting each other for over a year now, and the fight still hasn’t happened. It’s becoming something of a joke with many boxing fans.

“If Floyd wants to have a big fight, a huge fight, the only guy he could fight is Canelo Alvarez,” De La Hoya said via Sports Illustrated.

De La Hoya sounds like he’s leaving no stone unturned to try and drum up interest from the boxing fans in his Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight on May 6 on HBO pay-per-view.

Calling out Mayweather for a rematch against Canelo is a transparent move on De La Hoya’s part to try and get interest in the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight. I just hope De La Hoya doesn’t start working down the list of the other fighters that Canelo has fought in the past like 45-year-old Shane Mosley, Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland, Amir Khan and Liam Smith. De La Hoya has put Canelo in a lot of mismatches in the last few years. De La Hoya has been selective in the match-making for Canelo since his close fight with Erislandy Lara in 2014.

The fighter that De La Hoya needs to be name dropping right now for Canelo is Gennady Golovkin, not a fighter like Mayweather, who has been retired for the last 2 years. I wonder why De La Hoya isn’t name dropping Golovkin’s name. That’s the fighter that the boxing public wants to see Canelo fight. Mayweather is old news, and no longer relevant in today’s sport.

Mayweather is a promoter now, and he’s made it clear that he just wants to come back for one fight against novice Conor McGregor. The fight would be a mismatch, of course, as Mayweather would absolutely destroy the inexperienced McGregor. There are a lot of casual fans that wouldn’t know this until they plunked down their money and watched the fight. Ultimately, I think Mayweather vs. McGregor would hurt the PPV industry for boxing, as there will likely be a lot of furious fans at the fight not being a competitive one. It would be more of a circus fight than a real one.

Canelo looked pretty bad in his last two fights against Liam Smith and Amir Khan. I don’t see any improvement in Canelo’s boxing ability since he lost to Mayweather four years ago. Some think that Canelo has gotten better since his loss to Mayweather. I don’t agree. I think Canelo is the same fighter, only a lot heavier now than he was when he fought Mayweather. Canelo was said to be rehydrating into the 160s back when he fought Mayweather.

Canelo looks at least 15 lbs. heavier now, possibly even 20lbs. Mayweather would likely ask for a rehydration clause to keep Canelo from entering the ring at a certain weight if they were to fight again. It would be too much of a weight disparity if Canelo walked into the ring at 180 against a 150lb Mayweather. That would be too much weight for Mayweather to deal with. I still think Mayweather would jab his way to a victory like last time, but he would get hit with some hard shots by the light heavyweight-sized Canelo, and it would be a more punishing fight for him.

Canelo and Chavez Jr. will be fighting at a catch-weight of 164.5 pounds on May 6. Canelo is likely to add some weight for that fight from his normal weight, whatever that is. Canelo is no longer weighed in by HBO Boxing on the night of his fights. If Canelo is weighed by HBO, they haven’t been reporting his fight night weight lately.

Many fans see the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight as just another money grab by Golden Boy Promotions and their red-haired star. They see the fight as similar to the mismatches that Golden Boy has put Canelo in against James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Amir Khan and Shane Mosley. Those were all fighters that at one time had promising careers, but by the time they fought Canelo, they were no longer in their prime and they weren’t as relevant in the sport as they once were. You can definitely say that about Chavez Jr. because his boxing career has never fully recovered since his loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012. It’s questionable why Golden Boy has waited until now to match Canelo against Chavez Jr. The fight should have taken place 5 to 6 years ago when Chavez Jr. was in the zenith of his career.