Bob Arum has promoted a lot of fights over several decades in boxing, and was recently asked by FightHub's Marcos Villegas about the upcoming Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan bout on May 7.
Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya has compared the fight to his own 2008 bout with Manny Pacquiao, where the bigger De La Hoya was a heavy favorite before being decimated by the smaller, faster man. But Arum, who co-promoted De La Hoya-Pacquiao with De La Hoya and Golden Boy, doesn't think the comparison holds water.
"No, it's not Pacquiao-De La Hoya, because the comparison Oscar wants to make is that De La Hoya and Pacquiao, De La Hoya was so much bigger than Pacquiao, and Canelo is so much bigger than Khan," Arum said. "But De La Hoya was at the end of his career. Canelo is at the peak, at his prime. So it's different. That doesn't mean that Khan won't give him a good fight. I don't know. But it's not the same."
Arum added that it comes down to physicality and past performances, and that while he's not writing off Khan, he doesn't see him being able to challenge Alvarez.
"You never know in a fight. The problem I have with that fight from Khan's standpoint is he's not that big a banger and he doesn't have a good chin," he said. "Canelo's a strong kid, he's bigger, and he's gonna hit Khan, and Khan hasn't shown me that he can take a good punch. But again, he might have a strategy that works. You never know in boxing! Certainly Khan is a good talent, no question. He can box very well. But I just don't think he has the physical tools to stand up to Canelo."