Hearn warns De La Hoya about talking Canelo fight

By Boxing News - 07/29/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is making a mistake by hinting that he could come out of retirement to face Canelo Alvarez, according to promoter Eddie Hearn. He thinks that’s a bad idea for the 47-year-old De La Hoya to be bringing Canelo’s name into the equation for his comeback fight.

Initially, De La Hoya spoke of wanting to return to the ring to face a top-level welterweight at 154, but in a recent interview, he hinted at him potentially face Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs).

It would be a big fight that would interest a lot of boxing fans if it came off, but Hearn believes that Canelo might start wondering whether De La Hoya doesn’t want him to surpass what he’s done with his own career.

Is De La Hoya afraid Canelo will eclipse him?

“You’ve got to be careful. It’s difficult in that position because of my relationship with AJ [Anthony Joshua],” said Hearn to Behind The Gloves. “I’ve never been a fighter, but with Oscar, he was a great, and obviously I don’t know if there’s a part of him, it’s a weird thing to say almost doesn’t want Canelo to eclipse him or his legacy.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not saying that comment was about that. But you’ve got to be a little bit careful because probably Canelo will start to think, ‘what are you talking about?

“Some of this Oscar De La Hoya’s comeback stuff has been a little bit strange, but listen; people are talking about it. But when you talk about Mike Tyson returning, Oscar De La Hoya is still quite young and fresh. But I feel like those days are over for those guys,” said Hearn.

It’s difficult to say what De La Hoya’s rationale is for him considering a comeback. You have to assume that De La Hoya sees all the money that Mike Tyson is about to make with his exhibition match against Roy Jones Jr, and he figures he should jump in as well. Floyd Mayweather is making more money fighting MMA guys in exhibition-level fights than he did during his boxing career.

YouTube video

Although Mayweather’s fight against Conor McGregor was surprisingly sanctioned as a professional boxing match by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, it was an exhibition-level fight because McGregor had never fought in a professional battle before.

In essence, Mayweather-McGregor was a Youtube-level celebrity fight, and Mayweather made huge money. So when Oscar sees the money that he can make in returning to the ring, it’s not shocking that he would want to scoop up some of the cash as well.

Canelo CAN’T win six-division world titles like De La Hoya

In some respects, Canelo can’t capture six-division world titles and win an Olympic gold medal like De La Hoya. For Canelo to tie De La Hoya in winning six division world titles, he would need to move up to cruiserweight and then heavyweight to capture belts.

Even if Alvarez skillfully cherry-picks the weakest champions, which many boxing fans believe he did in winning his titles at 168 and 175, he’s not going to be able to win a world title at heavyweight.

Canelo can capture a world title at cruiserweight, but only because the division is woefully inadequate and utterly barren of talent. However, there are still several fighters at cruiserweight that would be bad news for Canelo.

Image: Hearn warns De La Hoya about talking Canelo fight

You wouldn’t want to see Canelo face Mairis Briedis or Yunier ‘The KO Doctor’ Dorticos. Those two stand out as the best at cruiserweight. If Canelo were to try and capture a world title at heavyweight, it would likely end badly for him. But before it ever got to that, Canelo would be probably be weeded out at cruiserweight.

Where Canelo can surpass De La Hoya is with the amount of money that he makes with his career. De La Hoya reportedly as a net worth of $200 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Canelo is listed as $120 million, but obviously, he’s got the $365 million, 11-fight contract with DAZN that he’s almost halfway through.

To De La Hoya’s credit, he wants to face a top boxer for his comeback. He’s not talking about wanting to meet a novice pulled in from the MMA sport so he can beat him up with ease the way Mayweather is doing.

Image: Hearn warns De La Hoya about talking Canelo fight

$49.99 is too much for Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr

“I just think the whole pay-per-view price in America is crazy,” said Hearn in reacting to the $49.99 price for the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr fight on September 12.

“Even $69.99 or whatever it normally is, that’s a lot of money. That’s 50 quid, 45 quid, or whatever it is. Tyson against Roy Jones is 40 pounds on pay-per-view.

“That’s my worry, and that’s my concern with the fight because if they turned around and went, ‘We’re going to get in there, and we’re going to go absolutely hammer and tongs at it, I might pay, but there’s too much uncertainty of what is an exhibition.

They might do a round and then do an interview at the end of the round, and you’ll be sitting at home watching it, saying ‘what the f***?’ Or someone is dancing around and messing around and stuff.

“I would rather, although it shouldn’t happen, I would rather they go at it. I’d pay then,” Eddie said.

The high price tag for the Mikey Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr fight on September 12 puts a lot of pressure on both of those guys to make it entertaining. In other words, this can’t be just an exhibition type of fight where both guys take it easy on each other, and not for the kill.

Image: Hearn warns De La Hoya about talking Canelo fight

Tyson plans on having future exhibition fights, and if he messes this one up against Jones by going easy on him, he’ll be hurting his future earning potential.

If Tyson wants to dance around the ring and go through the motions against Jones, then the price should have been in the $5 range because boxing fans wouldn’t be as angry as they will be with them being charged $50.

Hearn addresses Jake Paul rumors

“Whenever you do something that’s Youtube related, my feed goes potty,” said Hearn in addressing the Jake Paul rumors of him unfollowing him. “So someone put out, ‘Breaking news, Eddie Hearn unfollows Jake Paul.’

“And when I went to my Instagram, I looked at it, and I wasn’t following him. So I was thinking, I’ve never clicked unfollowed Jake Paul. So maybe I was never following him.

“Then I thought, ‘Sh***,’ then I started following him. And then people go, ‘Oh my God, he’s refollowing him.’ I’m like, ‘Bloody hell, does it really matter?’ It’s another world, isn’t it? I’ve gotten used to it, but Jake Paul can fight.

“He’s not a Muppet. He may be one of the best out there in that world. I don’t know the guy he’s fighting. I think he’s an ex-NBA. It’s going to do well. We’ve been offered it at Sky.

“The whole night. They’re going to be pay-per-viewing it around the world. So it’s difficult. It’s probably going to be a bit naff, but a lot of people will watch it,” Hearn said.

The Youtuber, Jake Paul vs. former NBA player Nate Robinson, is the co-feature bout on the Tyson vs. Jones card on September 12.

Why does Hearn even care about the Jake Paul rumors? He should be above this level of petty discussion.

Joshua to fight Pulev in December at the O2

“Conversations are ongoing with the government,” said Hearn when asked when crowds are going to be allowed back into events. “We’re lucky enough to be approved for a test event for the world snooker.

Image: Hearn warns De La Hoya about talking Canelo fight

“It’s about 350 people starting this week in Sheffield, and we’re continually trying to take baby steps, you know? A thousand, two thousand, etc. etc. Then we get to the point where can we get a full O2 in December for AJ?

“We hope so, but a lot depends on the numbers, where we go from here, is there going to be a spike? But right now, we just focus on what we do know, which is for the next four weeks, this [Matchroom Fight Camp] is the home of boxing.

“He would, yeah,” said Hearn when asked if Joshua would consider fighting at the Matchroom Fight Camp. “And he was here recently. He used to train on this lawn, you know?

“But of course, we want to bring people back, and we want to drive revenue into the show. But if he has to fight behind closed doors, he will,” said Hearn.

We’ll see what happens with the Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev fight, but it’s possible that Hearn will postpone it until 2021 if crowds aren’t allowed back in.

The reason why Hearn is relatively scheduling the Joshua-Pulev fight in December is he’s likely hoping a vaccine is out by then, and there’s a drop off in confirmed cases of the virus. That might be wishful thinking, unfortunately, as the vaccine might not be ready until early 2021.