By Jim Dower: Oscar De La Hoya responded on Friday to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in retaliation for him savaging Saul Canelo Alvarez this week following the news announcement of his new 5-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal with the streaming service DAZN. De La Hoya said that Mayweather is a ‘broke lowlife’, and that he need to crawl back and stay under his rock.
De La Hoya then dared Mayweather to fight Canelo at 160 pounds, which he doesn’t think he’ll do because he says Floyd only fights guys that are shot fighters or too young. Mayweather called out and fought Canelo when he was 22-years-old in 2013, and defeated him by a 12 round decision. De La Hoya thinks it would be a different story if Mayweather and Canelo fought each other right now. Of course, Mayweather is 41-years-old, retired and hasn’t had a fight against a quality boxer snice his match against Andre Berto in 2016. Mayweather fought last year in beating UFC fighter Conor McGregor by a 10th round knockout in August 2017.
“I hope he doesn’t spend it all in one place, but it’s one of the biggest,” De La Hoya said to TMZ about Canelo’s $365 million, 5-year contract with DAZN. “It’s the biggest sports contract in the history of sports, meaning Lebron James didn’t get this contract, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez or anybody. This is the biggest contract in sports history, so we’re very happy to put it together,” De La Hoya said.
Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) wasn’t impressed in the least with Canelo’s new $365 million contract with DAZN, saying that he can bring in the same amount of dough in just one fight.
”It takes me 36 mins or less to make $300 million plus. It literally takes me 1 night and 1 fight to make what you might make in 5 years and 11 fights! So really, who’s still winning? You do the math,” Mayweather said on his Instagram.
Mayweather has made huge money in two out of his last three fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. Floyd’s fight against Andre Berto didn’t bring in the big money that those two fights hauled in, which suggests that it’s important that Mayweather fight popular guys for him to maximize his income for each fight.
“How unfair is it that Canelo announces this big monumental deal, and here you have Floyd crawling out from under his little rock, trying to sabotage or try to steal the thunder,” De La Hoya said. “I don’t know what he was trying to do, but people know Floyd is Floyd, and that’s fine. That’s who he is. He’s a lowlife. That’s who he is. That’s exactly what Floyd is,” De La Hoya said.
Mayweather didn’t start the mud slinging, however. Canelo drew first blood in taking a shot at him earlier this week, saying he didn’t think that Mayweather would come out of retirement to fight him. Mayweather announced this week that he’ll be coming out of retirement in 2019 for fights against UFC stars Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. Mayweather said last month that he would be fighting a rematch against Manny Pacquiao, but he’s not talking about wanting to take that fight in 2019. The two guys that are in the immediate picture for Mayweather is McGregor and Khabib. Pacquiao is likely someone that Mayweather will fight in 2020 if the interest is still there from the boxing public.
Canelo, 28, might be hurting his chances for a rematch with Mayweather by moving up to 168, and saying that he’s not sure whether he’ll return to the 160 lb weight class. The only chance Canelo has of ever fighting Mayweather again is if he were to drain down to 154 to fight him at junior middleweight.
“Me and Canelo are having the last laugh,” De La Hoya said. “Canelo is going to enjoy his monumental contract. He’s going to fight the very best unlike Floyd, who waits for fighters to be either over the hill or too young, which is the way he fought Canelo when he was too young. Look, if Floyd really wants to fight, if he really wants to come out of retirement and crawl out from under his rock, then call out Canelo once again at 160 pounds. Call out Canelo and do the rematch, and that’s it. Absolutely [he wants a rematch],” De La Hoya said.
Canelo was very young when he fought Mayweather, but he still agreed to the fight due to the big money he made. It’s a fight that helped Canelo’s career in terms of visibility, money and the things that he learned from the fight. It was a definite positive for Canelo to mix it up with Mayweather. Mayweather isn’t going to come out of retirement and face someone that outweighs him by as much as Canelo would likely do if they fought each other. Canelo is rumored to rehydrate into the 180s for his fights at middleweight. Mayweather started his career out at super featherweight. He doesn’t have the same kind of size that Canelo has, and he never will. For Mayweather to fight Canelo now, it would be a huge weight mismatch. It would be like Canelo taking on a cruiserweight like Oleksandr Usyk, Murat Gassiev, Yunier Dorticos, Krzystof Glowacki and Mairis Briedis. Canelo might be able to win some rounds against those guys, but as soon as they start landing their shots, he’s going to be in trouble.
Another reason he crawled out from under his rock is he needs money,” De La Hoya said about Mayweather. “Absolutely, he needs money once again. Fighters like that always go broke. He’s not fighting anymore, so that big money not coming in. Look what happened to Mike Tyson. He made what, $500 million dollars. You think you can’t spend $500 million dollars overnight? Absolutely. I doubt he’ll [Mayweather] ever step inside that ring. Floyd’s a big freaking…Floyd, stay under your rock, dude. By far,” De La Hoya said when asked if Canelo will outearn Mayweather’s career earnings in boxing. Canelo is 28-year-old, and he’s already made a half billion dollars easy,” De La Hoya said.
What De La Hoya says about Mayweather needing money is what the rumor mill is saying is the driving force for him coming out of retirement to try and scrape together fights against UFC fighters McGregor and Khabib. Mayweather is rumored to have blown lots of money on gambling, expensive cars, and shopping. With around the clock security to pay for as well, it’s thought by some that Mayweather has already spent the money he’s made in his fights against Manny Pacquiao and McGregor.
Mayweather says it wouldn’t have mattered if Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) had used performance enhancing drugs on the night he fought him in 2013, because he still would have beaten him. Canelo tested positive for the banned drug clenbuterol earlier this year in February. He was later suspended for six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Although Canelo blamed the positive test on having eaten contaminated beef in Mexico, the Nevada Commission still handed down a lengthy six-month suspension. Mayweather doesn’t appear to believe the excuse given by Canelo for his positive drug test judging by his comments below.
“It didn’t matter if Canelo ate his PED steak or not this night, this was by far the easiest fight of my career! Conor McQuitter was a way better fighter than Canelo’s cheating ass and I beat the brakes off him too!” Mayweather said.
Not happy with just taking a shot at Canelo, Mayweather posted a photo of De La Hoya wearing nylon pantyhose and posing with his short off. To make fun of De La Hoya, Mayweather invited his Instagram posters to come up with a “disrespectful’ caption to describe him.
“11 years ago,I fought her and her name is Oscar “Golden Girl” De la Hoya. Please leave the most disrespectful caption you can think of,” Mayweather said.
