Oscar De La Hoya, the President of Golden Boy Promotions, believes that his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will be the guy that takes the baton from Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao to replace them as boxing’s No.1 pay-per-view attraction once those two fighters retire.
It’s interesting that De La Hoya believes that the 24-year-old Canelo will be the guy that will be taking over as the top PPV star because there are many boxing fans who believe that he deserves to have three losses on his resume, not just one to Mayweather.
Canelo fought poorly against Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout and either fought well enough to lose or well enough to get a draw. Those were not the type of performances that you see from a guy that is De La Hoya expects to carry the sport after Mayweather and Pacquiao depart.
“There’s always a void, but it doesn’t last forever,” De La Hoya said. “There’s always some other guy that comes along and fills the void. The great thing is we’ve already filled that void, and we already have that guy. That’s Canelo Alvarez. Canelo’s going to be that guy for the next 10 years.”
If Canelo is going to carry the sport for the next 10 years as the No.1 pay-per-view star then De La Hoya may need to keep him away from Lara, Trout and Gennady Golovkin because those are bad style match-ups for Canelo. Golovkin would likely destroy Canelo. Right now, Canelo would have a built in excuse if he were to lose to Golovkin due to the Kazakhstan fighter fighting in the middleweight division and Canelo in the junior middleweight division.
That excuse is pretty flimsy given that Canelo weighs almost the exact same weight as Golovkin when he enters the ring. Both guys fight at the low 170s. The only difference is Canelo fights junior middleweights and Golovkin middleweights. Being heavier than most of his opponents no doubt helps Canelo at junior middleweight.
De La Hoya is counting on Canelo getting a fight against Miguel Cotto on May 2nd, because it would be a fight that would increase Canelo’s popularity if he were to beat Cotto. Right now, Canelo failed his only real test at building his name when he fought Mayweather last year. Canelo needs a second chance, because he lost a lot of credibility in his fights against Mayweather, Trout and Lara. He needs to prove that he can beat a good fighter without controversy if he’s going to be a pay-per-view star.
“For Canelo, it’s an important fight [against Cotto] because it’s a marquee name, and most importantly for the fans it will be a great fight because of their styles. I can literally see a trilogy happening between them because of their styles,” De La Hoya said.
I don’t know that Canelo will be able to carry the sport for any length of time because he’s too flat-footed, easy to hit, and rigid when he fights. Someone like that is going to get out-boxed when he faces guys like Lara, Demetrius Andrade and other young fighters that will soon be coming along. Unless De La Hoya protects Canelo, I don’t see him lasting even two years as the top fighter in the sport after Mayweather and Pacquiao retire.