By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya says Golden Boy Promotions made an offer to unbeaten WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) for a fight with Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) last year, but either he or his team rejected the deal.
According to De La Hoya, it was a “lucrative’ offer for the 29-year-old Jermall to take on Canelo, but unfortunately he chose not to take the fight. De La Hoya says that train has left the station, meaning that they’re not going to attempt to revisit the Charlo negotiations to try and restart them.
There remains a great deal of interest from boxing fans in a Canelo vs. Charlo fight, and it’s self-defeating for De La Hoya to not at least try to negotiate a fight.
Canelo was elevated to WBC Franchise middleweight champion in 2019. While at the same time, the World Boxing Council made Charlo their new WBC 160-lb champion.
De La Hoya said on Monday that he’ll be traveling to Mexico this week to meet with Canelo to decide on who he’ll be fighting on May 2. Oscar revealed on Monday that WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders isn’t the frontrunner for the Canelo fight on May 2. He’s not sure who started the rumor that Saunders will get the fight, but it’s not true.
Jermall Charlo turned down lucrative deal for Canelo fight
“We’re still four months away, so we have a lot of time,” said De La Hoya to Fighthype about Canelo’s next fight on May 2. “I’ve leaving for Mexico right now to sit down with Canelo, and his team for Cinco de Mayo. We offered [Jermall] a pretty lucrative deal to fight Canelo last year. I don’t know who turned it down. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Charlo, but that train has already left and it’s unfortunate.
“From 160 to 175, we’ll decide in the next couple of days,” said De La Hoya in talking about weight class Canelo will fight in for his next fight. “I think when you fight Canelo, you deserve more than what you’ve been normally making. But when you price yourself out, it’s really because you don’t want to fight him. That’s the bottom line.
“When I was a fighter, I was always the A-side, but when fighters wanted to fight me, it was because you’re fighting me because you want to beat me,” De La Hoya continued. “You’re making all the money already, but it’s because you want to beat me, you know? We’re not seeing that today.
“I think we’re seeing these fighters price themselves out, and it’s ridiculous,” said De La Hoya. “Fight for the glory, and then the money will come. A lot of fighters are pricing themselves out too fast, and then the train leaves. Then you have no fight. Just be flexible with that,” said De La Hoya.
It’s too bad for Charlo that he or his team prices themselves out for the Canelo fight, for the reason that it would be a huge payday. A win over Canelo would take Charlo’s career to the next level. The fight would be worth it for Charlo.
De La Hoya: There are too many champions
“The world has shrunk, and it’s brought everybody closer,” said De La Hoya. “I think we can cut deals all over, whether it’s in Japan or whether it’s in Dubai or the UK. So I’ll be sitting down with Canelo in the next couple of weeks and figuring it out. There are too many world champions in too many divisions.
“It’s getting a little confusing, and I’m like, ‘Who’s that,’ and that’s me, who has been in boxing since I was five,” said Oscar. “I have to know these things. Your casual fan, who is following boxing for the first time, doesn’t know who the champion is any given weight class, and that’s a problem,” said De La Hoya.
The sanctioning bodies have watered down all the divisions by creating world champions left and right. They’re like fishermen with giant nets, looking to create a lot of champions, and then rake in the money from the sanctioning fees. Unlike in basketball and football, there’s not an organization in charge of boxing. If there was, then there would be fewer world champions, and the belts would mean something again.