By Dan Ambrose: After saying for ages that Saul Canelo Alvarez is a 154lb fighter, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has suddenly changed his tune when it comes to interest in a fight between Canelo and UFC star Conor McGregor. De La Hoya says he would love to make a fight between Canelo and McGregor at 160. Some would say that De La Hoya will do anything to have Canelo duck Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, even matching him against McGregor do dodge the fight. A fight between Canelo and McGregor would make a lot of money, but it’s not likely to happen.
De La Hoya says he would like to speak with McGregor and potentially promote him if he were interested in a boxing career. McGregor is under contract with the UFC, and it’s unclear whether that would forbid him from fighting or taking part in any other sport while he’s with the UFC. As far as De La Hoya is concerned, the only fight that makes sense to him is a match between McGregor and Canelo.
De La Hoya says he’s still interested in matching Canelo against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in September of next year. De La Hoya still doesn’t know who Canelo will be fighting in February or May. The fight for Canelo in February is one that might not happen due to him coming off of a hand injury from his recent title fight against WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith on September 17. Canelo won the fight by a 9th round knockout, but he fractured his right hand in the process.
De La Hoya said this to Fighthub.com about a fight between Canelo and McGregor at 160:
“The only interest I would have of Conor, if he’s serious about fighting; First of all, we’d love to talk with him and promote him,” said De La Hoya about McGregor. “Imagine, Conor McGregor and Golden Boy coming together. But the only fight I’d love to see and the one that makes the most sense, that would be the most exciting, that would be a guaranteed knockout is against Canelo Alvarez. They’re in the same weight class. So it makes all the sense in the world. Imagine, 154, 160, actually. It would be at 160. Imagine, that’s two Irish fighters going at it. No, a Mexican [Canelo] and an Irish, but it would be a hell of a fight.”
It doesn’t sound too realistic a fight taking place between Canelo and McGregor inside a boxing ring. McGregor seems to be only intent on fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he were given permission by the UFC to fight outside of their organization. I don’t know if McGregor has even heard of Canelo before. He might not follow boxing too closely. If that’s the case, then it’s not surprising that he’s only mentioning Mayweather’s name.
If he’s only heard of Mayweather, then he’s going to the only one that he continually mentions over and over. By the same token, if McGregor is only calling out Mayweather just to try and lure boxing fans to start following his fights in the MMA, then there’s no point in Canelo and Golden Boy trying to get a fight against him, because his purpose in name dropping wouldn’t be a serious one. It would be just a tool to attract fans to watch his fights in the UFC.
McGregor would have such a steep hill to climb for him to learn boxing for a fight against Canelo or Mayweather. It’s almost silly to talk about it. If De La Hoya signed McGregor to his Golden Boy stable, it’s not likely that he’d pan out. De La Hoya would need to keep the training wheels on McGregor for a number of years to bring him along slowly before stepping him up. If McGregor was rushed immediately into fights against Canelo, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or anyone good, the outcome would be predictable. In the end, McGregor would almost surely fail and Golden Boy would likely cut him loose.
De La Hoya should focus on getting Canelo back into the ring with the purpose of getting him prepared for the Golovkin fight in 2017. That means putting Canelo in with guys that have a similar high pressure style and/or punching power. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many fighters in boxing with the talent and power like Golovkin. For that reason, De La Hoya should look to match Canelo against David Lemieux next.
At least with Lemieux, he’s got major punching power that would help get Canelo prepared for what he’d be facing when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin. Canelo needs to be ready for that fight if De La Hoya is really interested in putting him in with GGG. Canelo’s last fight against Liam Smith was not the type of fight that you take to get you ready for Golovkin. Liam Smith is the type of guy that you match Canelo against if you want to get him ready for someone like Liam Williams or Kell Brook, but definitely not to get him ready for Golovkin.
McGregor recently got his boxing license, but that doesn’t mean anything. He’s still under contract with the UFC, and they’re not going to let him fight outside of their organization. Just imagine if McGregor suffered a bad injury in competing in boxing. That would sideline him and prevent him from defending his UFC title.
