Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin is officially scheduled for September 16, which is good news. The bad news is that from now until then we’ll have to listen to Oscar De La Hoya gloat about how he always said this fight would come off this Fall and how he has now graciously delivered. But, you know, we’ll take the good with the bad.
So following the post-fight announcement that Canelo-Golovkin was finally official, the Golden Boy promoter is making the media rounds to, well, promote the fight! Just today De La Hoya appeared on ESPN’s First Take to discuss the fight. Check out what he had to say...
On why everyone should tune-in to watch what he’s describing as the ‘biggest fight ever’:
“Oh, I mean it’s gonna be bombs away. Look at their records, look at their fighting style, everything. Everybody knows it. Stephen A. Smith knows it, Max Kellerman knows it, I mean this is the fight that everybody wanted to see and now I made it happen so there’s no excuse whatsoever. This fight will be the biggest fight, the best fight, that people can watch.”
On how much pressure he’s been feeling from the public and from Canelo himself to make this fight:
“It’s only been about a year and a half since people were talking about this fight. I didn’t wait no six or seven years to make this fight happen. There was a lot of pressure from the fans, they were speaking their voice, but uh, I had a plan and now that Canelo got a feel of the weight class at 164lbs - look, September was always the target date and it’s finally here and I can’t wait, it’s gonna be a huge event.”
On if Canelo has ever discussed his sparring experience with Golovkin:
“He did, actually. He used to spar with him I believe when he was 20, 21, 22-years old. And the experience he had was a great one. Canelo’s a fast fighter. Canelo’s a fighter who has - he says he has a lot of cojones. I believe it’s gonna take for Canelo to go in there and press the action and use his speed and use his defense — he has some great defense. Even if he stays on the ropes he has great defense. And Canelo’s a fighter who doesn’t back down and he’s only getting better, he’s getting faster, he’s getting stronger. Both guys are at their perfect moment, prime time, and it’s gonna be a great fight. I mean I can see this fight taking place, shaping out like a Thomas Hearns vs. ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler.”
On where the fight will be held:
“Well that’s exactly what I’m working on now. I have calls in to everybody. I mean as you can imagine everyone wants the fight here in Los Angeles, Dallas, Texas with my friend Jerry Jones, obviously Las Vegas, New York has already called. So there’s several places that people want it and it’s just a matter of placing all these calls and we’ll see where this fight fits in perfectly because I do want to have the general public experiencing this big event, maybe having 100,000 people there, I do want Las Vegas people to fly in from all over the world and experiencing Las Vegas so it’s gonna be a difficult decision to make. But ultimately I’m sure the decision I make has to make sense for the boxing public.”
On what the details for the fight are: any catch weights, glove restrictions, etc:
“Let’s just say that this is a real, true middleweight fight at 160lbs, both guys will fight in 10oz gloves, there’s no rehydration weight-class clause and all this BS and this and that. It’s a true middleweight fight at 160lbs and that’s it.”
On if Canelo has an advantage going into the ring already having experienced a loss, or does the undefeated Golovkin get that edge:
“Well I think a lot of times you have to taste defeat once or twice to grow as a fighter. Especially when you’re facing the best guys at their prime, when you’re facing the toughest challenges that they put in front of you - you’re gonna lose! I mean that’s just the bottom line. And Canelo has tasted defeat from the best fight of our generation with Floyd Mayweather. He’s learned, he’s grown as a fighter, he’s just getting better. As you can see every single fight Canelo is growing as a fighter and Golovkin, he’s a tough guy. He’s a guy who can take the punch, and who can give you the punch, but other than that, what do you have?
“I think that this fight here is going to be very interesting, I think a lot of people are counting out Canelo already. I mean the odds are in favor of GGG already so people are counting him out, Canelo.”
Reflecting on his own fight with Mayweather:
“I was actually very surprised that I did so well against Floyd later on in my career. But anyway, look, even Floyd...after this fight with Canelo and Golovkin, forget about [Conor McGregor], forget about a fighter who has zero experience, who has zero fights, who has zero amateur experience, forget about that. Mayweather’s better than that...if you want to fight and have a rematch against Canelo or a fight against Golovkin - go after them, after Canelo and Golovkin fight, go after the winner.”