LAS VEGAS – Years of acrimony that festered through a bitter lawsuit, allegations of deprived earnings and a high-profile split between two proud champions boiled over Wednesday as Oscar De La Hoya triggered a harsh exchange with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at an all-time heated news conference.
“I’m one to always bury a hatchet, but that ship has sailed,” De La Hoya told reporters. “If there’s one person in the world that I will not bury the hatchet with, it’s probably him.”
De La Hoya, the head of Golden Boy Promotions, will bring his Tijuana-based fighter Jaime Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs) to Saturday’s all-Mexican Cinco de Mayo showdown against undisputed super middleweight champion Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) at T-Mobile Arena.
On stage, De La Hoya delivered an extended replay of his decade with Alvarez, who developed into a four-division champion to stand where his promoter once did – as the face of boxing.
The friction was palpable as De La Hoya verbally confronted Alvarez.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t respond to the man I used to promote,” De La Hoya said. “He seems to have trouble remembering who helped him become a true global star. To be clear, I have nothing but respect for Canelo as a fighter. His record and ability speak for themselves. But he has spent much of the last two months insulting me rather than promoting this fight.
“So, I’ll make it a little bit easier for him. Yes, I have faced a lot of challenges in my life. Yes, I’ve been to rehab several times. Yes, there were some really low points in my life and, yes, there were times when work was not my priority based on my mental health, which I had neglected for so long. But that doesn’t change the fact that Golden Boy built Canelo Alvarez, period. The company he fought under for decades has always had one name, and it’s mine. So put some f****** respect on it.”
Alvarez replied back in Spanish and ultimately raised from his seat to pursue De La Hoya before intermediaries intervened.
“I was ready, clenched fists and all,” De La Hoya said minutes later. “Obviously, he’s not going to do anything. He’s got a fight Saturday. He can’t take the truth. A fighter like that can’t have me around because the attention is diverted off him. He hates that. I know how to get under his skin.”
De La Hoya told BoxingScene he believes his words to Alvarez could make a difference and help Munguia, 27, defeat the 33-year-old four-division champion and former pound-for-pound king Alvarez.
“Oh, yeah … when you’re distracted in your head, thinking about me, it can be detrimental to his concentration and his game plan,” De La Hoya said, letting a grin slip. “Hopefully, it worked. … I poked an old bear who doesn’t want to fight.”
When another reporter reminded De La Hoya, “He called you a f****** p****,” De La Hoya responded, “I’ve been called worse. There’s nothing he can say about me.
“It’s fight week. It’s game on. S***, we’re not at church. This is a fight. Let’s go.”
De La Hoya said his resentment toward Alvarez is more than a decade old, dating to when De La Hoya missed Alvarez’s massive pay-per-view fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. to enter rehab for addiction.
“You guys know me. I’m a nice guy. I deal with everybody – [former bitter rivals] Fernando Vargas, even [Ricardo] Mayorga,” De La Hoya said. “This guy, the s*** that he said about me with the drugs and the rehabs.
“OK, wow, you’re getting mad because I wasn’t with you when you fought Mayweather, your biggest fight, where you got embarrassed? Guess what, I was taken to rehab. So you’re putting your foot on my neck when I’m down? OK, guess what? Enough is enough. And this is a perfect moment, because, did I get in his head? Yes, absolutely.”
Afterward, Alvarez admitted how bent he was at De La Hoya’s words.
“He insulted me and I don’t want to permit that,” Alvarez said. “I will [punch him]. If he came closer, I punch him. He’s a f****** asshole.
“He don’t care about his fighter because he tried to bring all the attention to him. He don’t care about Jaime Munguia, his best week, his best fight. He just cares about himself.”
Alvarez said he anticipates a Saturday night in which he defeats Munguia – Canelo has predicted a knockout by the end of the eighth round – and then turns to face De La Hoya.
“I’m gonna be so happy that night,” he said. “You will see. I’m gonna f*** that motherf***** son of a b****.”
Both Alvarez and De La Hoya returned to the old, divisive moments that scarred their time together.
Alvarez said De La Hoya attempted to “steal” from his earnings from one of his bouts against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.
“He tried to steal money,” Alvarez said. “He’s a f****** a******. I have proof. He tried to steal money from me from my fight with Golovkin, and he tried to steal money from Golovkin.”
After that claim, De La Hoya’s ire was raised.
“That’s defamation,” De La Hoya said. “I take [Golden Boy Promotions] very serious – what I do, how I do it. My work and my company is very serious, so for him to [say that], that’s defamation. And you know what? I have something coming for him.”
De La Hoya brought up Alvarez’s two failed drug tests in which he tested positive for the banned substance, which he claimed he accidentally ingested by eating tainted beef in Mexico.
Ironically, when a then-suspended Alvarez couldn’t keep his planned 2018 rematch date against Golovkin, it was Munguia who volunteered to fight GGG, only to be stopped by the Nevada Athletic Commission because of his inexperience. A result for the level of clenbuterol found in Alvarez back then no longer triggers a positive test.
Does De La Hoya now believe Alvarez doped?
“My opinion is my opinion, and the facts are the facts,” De La Hoya told reporters. “I’m not a doctor. I just go by what the truth was. He failed two drug tests. I’m not an investigator, not someone who’ll find out if he took the beef or not. All I know is, on paper he failed two drug tests.”
“Jaime raising his hand [back then], wanting to fight GGG instead of Canelo [shows] Jaime is game for anything, to fight anybody at any time. That’s why we love Jaime.”
Clearly, the love that once existed for a fighter De La Hoya shared so many monumental victories with is gone.
“He’s walking in quicksand now. His injuries are catching up to him,” De La Hoya said of Alvarez. “He’s an old 33. You can be old depending on your wars. I think the stars are aligned for Jaime Munguia to take advantage of this situation Saturday.”
Alvarez took note that De La Hoya didn’t get near him as they posed for faceoff pictures – one big, unhappy boxing family.
“If he came really close to me,” Alvarez said, “I’d punch him in that situation.”
By Lance Pugmire