Oscar De La Hoya didn’t like what he saw from Canelo Alvarez in the way he couldn’t go for the kill after hurting John Ryder last Saturday night at the Estadio Akron Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The ‘Golden Boy’ De La Hoya feels that Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) looked “slower than usual.” and he was troubled that he couldn’t finish Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs) off in the tiny 18 x 18-foot ring after dropping him in the fifth.
De La Hoya says Canelo should have gone on the attack and thrown a flurry of shots against the 34-year-old Ryder after he got back up because he thinks that with the fight in Mexico, the referee would have stopped it on the spot.
Oscar thinks that Canelo wasn’t confident enough to try and finish Rynder, and that’s a sign that he’s “slowing down.” While Canelo may argue against that view, he failed to knock out Ryder, who was there to be stopped.
Canelo also looked poor in his previous two fights against 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin and Dmitry Bivol last year.
Oscar didn’t offer his opinion on which direction Canelo should go in next, but he has said that he doesn’t think he can ever defeat Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), and that’s a guy he could be facing next on September 16th.
“From a fighter’s perspective, I did see him slow down. His feet were a little slow,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV about Canelo Alvarez looking slower than usual in his performance against John Ryder last weekend.
“I saw his left hand was a little hurt. I don’t know if it was from an injury beforehand, but I did see something with his hand.
Given the fact that it was an 18 x 18 ring, which gives Canelo the advantage, and he couldn’t stop him, it goes to show you that his abilities are still his abilities, but in his mind, he wasn’t confident enough to go out and knock him out or stop him.
“So that shows me that there’s a sign there of slowing down. When you have somebody hurt when he dropped Ryder, you go after him and throw a barrage of punches, and the referee stops it, especially if you’re in Mexico.
“Fans would have loved that and thought, ‘Canelo is back. Canelo is ready, he’s stronger, he’s better,’ but it goes the twelve rounds, and he’s going to get the criticism. He brought that upon himself. That’s the bottom line,” said De La Hoya.
