In this video interview caught by FightHub, Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya talks about Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. putting together a good training camp, which could potentially make things hard on his fighter, Canelo Alvarez.
“Canelo’s only getting better, but like I said, on the other hand you have Chavez who’s better than ever. And I say that will all sincerity that he’s looking phenomenal. And when we signed this fight there was part of me that said ‘Canelo will walk right through him’ but right now I feel that it’s going to be a very difficult match-up for Canelo but we have full confidence that he’s ready.”
On if he’s starting to get nervous about the outcome of the fight:
“Absolutely. It’s nerve-racking because we obviously feel that Canelo can walk right through him, but hearing all these stories from people who know firsthand that Chavez is looking incredible, so, I mean, he’s gonna be in tip-top shape, his style is going to be different because of Nacho Beristain, so Canelo’s not gonna know what to deal with maybe inside the ring. So he has to adjust the first 3-4 rounds so we’ll see. We’ll see how it pans out.”
On how this fight prepares Canelo for a showdown with Gennady Golovkin:
“Well it’s the strength. Golovkin is all strength, brute strength, so fights like this obviously helps Canelo, and look, let’s just say that 2017 is going to be exciting, it’s going to be really big for boxing. So I’m thrilled that we can be apart of this and make the big fights happen.”
On if there’s any scenario in which Canelo-Golovkin doesn’t happen next:
“Well it’s all about negotiations. That’s it. That’s basically it. I mean, look, we’re waiting for May 6. I’m waiting for May 7th to happen so I can start moving it along with the hype train for Golovkin. So, Canelo has to win. Canelo has to win, and he has to win impressively.”