The city tour press conferences began yesterday, the May 4 hype for the big Canelo Alvarez/Danny Jacobs fight getting underway. And as usual, promoter Oscar De La Hoya had plenty of things to say. As fans know, the Golden Boy head can be pretty wild at times with some of the things he comes out with, while the former multi-weight champ can also come out with some profound and thought-provoking stuff.
Yesterday, falling into both chategories, De La Hoya came out with two especially interesting comments. Firstly, Oscar said he sees the May 4 clash playing out very much like a middleweight version of the epic Julio Cesar Chavez vs Meldrick Taylor unification fight at 140 pounds. If De La Hoya turns out to be right we fight fans are in store for a great and memorable battle. Fans still talk about the almost unbelievable action that unfolded in the ring that night in March of 1990. Fans also continue to debate whether or not referee Richard Steele made the correct call in stopping the fight when he did – with just two-seconds left on the clock in the 12th and final round.
Let’s hope we do get as special a fight on May 4 (though this is of course really asking for the sky) but without the controversy.
As for De La Hoya’s other interesting comment, he stated that if Canelo can beat Jacobs and become “the absolute world champion at middleweight,” he will in his opinion be one one of the three or four greatest fighters ever to have come out of Mexico. High praise indeed, but is it worthy?
Canelo has as we know achieved a whole lot and at 28 he has plenty of time in which to do more. Maybe in time Canelo can put himself right up there with the special ones his great fighting country has produced, such as Chavez, Salvador Sanchez, Ruben Olivares and others.
But would a win over Jacobs do it for Canelo? It would be a fine win on his record if Alvarez can beat Jacobs (some people do say that this fight really is one of the toughest of his entire career) but he needs to do more to be worthy of being ranked above greats like Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Still, that’s De La Hoya for you – he sure knows how to both hype an upcoming fight and get fight fans talking. And arguing.