By Charles Brun: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn saw red on Thursday in response to Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya dumping on him for matching Canelo Alvarez against John ‘The Gorilla’ Ryder instead of the “tough” opposition.
In an interview with FightHubTV, De La Hoya stated that he has a problem with Hearn matching his former flagship fighter Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) against “all these British fighters,” who were little more than Hors D’oeuvres for the Mexican star rather than a main course meal against a talent like David Benavidez.
De La Hoya says Canelo is now “regressing” by fighting the 34-year-old Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs), who has a whole bunch of losses and has been beaten by three of the superstar’s former victims.
Some would argue Canelo is desperate for a win, wanting to keep his career above the waterline after his dreadful performances last year against an old-washed Gennadiy Golovkin and Dmitry Bivol.
The fights showed clearly that Canelo can no longer hang with the best, and would be food for talents Benavidez, David Morrell, Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev.
With Hearn being from the UK, he not surprising that he views Ryder as a great choice for Canelo, as ‘The Gorilla’ is a household name over there, and the British fans are arguably more tolerant of fighters that are beaten many times than U.S fans.
An example is Brits still craving to watch the old journeyman Derek Chisora, a simple ham & egger heavyweight with 13 losses on his resume. A guy with that many losses wouldn’t make it on U.S. television for a main event. It’s not happening.
“He has to take this fight if he wants to maintain his belts,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV, explaining why he’s matching Canelo Alvarez against John Ryder rather than fighters that fans want to see him fighting.
“Billy Joe Saunders unification, Caleb Plant an undisputed fight, and Dmitry Bivol,” Hearn continued. “Oscar De La Hoya said, ‘They’re stupid taking that [Bivol] fight, that’s such a tough fight, they’re idiots,’ but all of a sudden he’s taking easy fights?
“I think he needs to look at some of his own matchmaking, particularly Gilberto Ramirez this weekend and particularly Jaime Munguia, which has been absolutely horrific.
“When people speak with emotion and anger, they ignore the facts,” said Hearn, who was clearly speaking with anger and ignoring the facts that he’s been matching Canelo against a lot of weaker opponents like Ryder, Billy Joe Saunders, Rocky Fielding & Callum Smith instead of the ‘Mexican Monster’ David Benavidez.
