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It’s safe to say the recent photo of rival fighters Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford sat having dinner together during a lavish meal hosted by Turki Alalshikh did not go down too well with fight fans. The sight of the two men, who we all hope will give us a great, intense fight in September, seemingly cordial and enjoying chow as well as each other’s company is not how two ring rivals should be going about things just weeks ahead of a massive fight.
And it sure hasn’t taken Oscar De La Hoya long to make his feelings clear on what he has sarcastically referred to as a “dinner date.” Taking to YouTube once again, De La Hoya tore into both fighters for daring to behave in such a civilised manner prior to their fight in Las Vegas.
De La Hoya mocks fighters’ civility: “What the f**k… we want war!”
“So the ridiculous promotion of Canelo versus Crawford has given me lots of good ammunition,” De La Hoya began. “First, let’s take a look back to last week when this photo was taken of Canelo and Crawford having dinner together like they’re best friends?! Like they’re buddies, like they were family friends! I mean, can you imagine Muhammad Ali or like Joe Frazier having dinner together? Can you imagine Mike Tyson and Mitch Green before a brawl? What the fk. No boxing fan wants to see two fighters having dinner together. We want bad blood, we want anticipation, we want to feel like an actual war is about to happen, not f***g caviar and champagne together.”
Are fans right to worry this is all about money?
It’s tough to argue with De La Hoya here, although some people have stated that we can forget the “dinner date,” as when the fight rolls around the two men will both “flick the switch” and behave like fighters, with both pound-for-pounders doing their utmost to tear the other’s head off. We’d better hope this is what happens. But some fans do worry Canelo and Crawford are getting too much money and that as a result the hunger and the sheer desire is lacking. For no man will lose in September, not with the absolute fortune both men will bank.
Back to De La Hoya, and he fired off one really sharp line in again laying into Canelo:
“Crawford, if you actually want to make Canelo mad, just tell the truth about him and his tainted meat,” De La Hoya said.
Ouch. For sure, it really is harder than hard to try and remember the fact that Oscar and Canelo not only worked together once, but were actually good friends!
