Oscar De La Hoya spoke with our colleagues at Fight Hub TV about some of the big news swirling around the boxing world right now, namely Canelo Alvarez's next fight, the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations, and Al Haymon's move to take his fighters to NBC.
The 41-year-old promoter said that he'll meet with Alvarez today and discuss what's next. There have been rumors that a fight with James Kirkland is nearly complete for May 2 in San Antonio, but De La Hoya declined naming Kirkland as a frontrunner. The original plan was for Alvarez to fight Miguel Cotto, but Cotto's team labored in the negotiations, and Canelo ordered the negotiations to be shut down.
"I'll be sitting down with Canelo, driving down to San Diego and explore every option," De La Hoya said. "One thing is for sure, Canelo is going to fight May 2nd. He's expressed for many months now that he's not moving from that date. He wants to fight on May 2nd and give his fans the best show possible."
Oscar said that negotiations with Cotto broke down as some believe they have once again for a fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
"It's exactly what happened to the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations. We signed our side of the deal. I can't say that Cotto was afraid of Canelo. I can't say that Mayweather's afraid of Pacquiao," De La Hoya said. "But the fact of the matter is, they're not going to give the fans what they deserve to be watching. Canelo wants to satisfy his fans. He wants to give the fans the best of the best.
"But unfortunately, (Cotto) has other plans. Same with Mayweather. I wish those fights would take place because the fans would really enjoy them and they would come out the winners."
De La Hoya's true lead role at Golden Boy is something somewhat new for him, as for years Richard Schaefer was the CEO of the company and the actual leading man, by all accounts. But with Schaefer parting ways with Golden Boy last year -- or being forced out -- Oscar has discovered some of pitfalls that were set up under the last regime. The biggest has come from Golden Boy routinely promoting fighters they didn't actually have under contract, working with adviser Al Haymon on most of their cards, promoting guys like Danny Garcia, Deontay Wilder, Adrien Broner, Marcos Maidana, and several others.
But De La Hoya says that Golden Boy will stay strong, and create their own new stars just as they created stars of many of Haymon's fighters.
"Any champion that's out there fighting somewhere else, for somebody else, we built. That's what we do best. Deontay Wilder, for instance, who won the heavyweight championship of the world, we built right from the start. We saw him in the Olympics. That's what we do best, that's what we know how to do," he said.
"That's exactly what we're doing at Golden Boy Promotions, is giving the opportunity once again to young champions, signing them to Golden Boy Promotions to make them family and have that long-term plan for them, and create superstars. That's what we know how to do best. It's not a rebuilding of Golden Boy. It's just we're once again building that next generation of champions."