According to Oscar De La Hoya, the upcoming September 13 super fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford will take place “in broad daylight.” The fight, which may or may not be staged at the huge Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, will, according to De La Hoya, take place earlier in the day so as to accommodate a UFC fight card that will take place that night.
And Oscar is disgusted by this. Speaking on his YouTube channel, the Golden Boy head said the fact that the fight, one that is being called the biggest of the year, will in essence play second fiddle to a UFC card, is an insult to boxing fans.
“Listen to this, the fight will take place in broad daylight on September 13 in Las Vegas, in broad daylight,” De La Hoya said. “Canelo is going to fight in the day on Netflix just to accommodate the UFC Night card later that day on another channel. Does that mean this fight doesn’t matter? Do they not give a damn about the fans or the ratings? Why does Canelo have to fight in broad daylight on Mexican Independence Day?”
Some more good questions from De La Hoya, for sure. We have of course seen big fights take place in daylight hours before, but fans who were looking forward to a massive all day, late night party with the Canelo-Crawford fight will be disappointed if the party ends early. It will be interesting to see just what time the first bell is scheduled for with regards to the fight many people see as the most fascinating of the year.
Will a broad daylight opening bell and final bell result in diminished ticket sales and TV views here? Who knows. But Oscar is angry at the way UFC, so often referred to as boxing’s “rival,” is being given the star treatment on September 13, this by way of it getting top billing over the so-called biggest fight of the year.
Do you agree with De La Hoya and what he has said?
De La Hoya rips both stars—“How is this the biggest fight?”
In the opinion of some boxing people, the upcoming super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford is the biggest fight in the sport right now. In this fight, we will see four-division champ Crawford go for history, this as he moves up to 168 pounds to challenge the unified champ.
Plenty of people say “Bud” is just too small to be able to be competitive, much less win here, while others say Crawford is such a special talent he will be able to pull it off. A good many of us are intrigued and excited about the upcoming fight.
But Oscar De La Hoya, who of course used to promote Canelo, and was friendly with him until their well-documented falling out, has really torn into the September showdown. Taking to X to let his feelings be known , De La Hoya said both Canelo and Crawford have been “exposed” recently and that this fight is in no way the biggest in boxing.
Here is what De La Hoya wrote:
“So hear me out Crawford will be 38 and Canelo is 35. Crawford hasn’t fought in a year and got exposed by [Israil] Madrimov IMO. Canelo has been getting exposed for the past few years. Can anyone please explain to me how this is the ‘biggest fight in boxing?’”
It’s true Madrimov gave Crawford a tough night’s work, but as far as “expose him?” No. And yes, Canelo looked quite poor in his last fight, this in the snoozer with a staggeringly reluctant William Scull, but prior to that, Canelo looked pretty good against Edgar Berlanga, and before that against Jaime Munguia; even if the Mexican star failed to score a stoppage in either fight.
Okay, both Canelo, 63-2-2(39) and Crawford, 41-0(31) are past their peak, their prime, but it’s still a fascinating matchup we have here. Would De La Hoya be tearing into the fight the way he is if he were promoting it?
You could argue that the July rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois, for all four world heavyweight titles, is the biggest fight in boxing right now. But is Canelo-Crawford the second biggest fight today?