By: Sean Crose
“We are watching boxing die slowly,” Oscar De La Hoya stated on social media Monday after Canelo Alvarez won a wide decision over Jermell Charlo on Saturday night. “I’m calling out all promoters to come together,” De La Hoya continued, “and make all the fights the fans want to see…finally. I’m tired of fighters fighting for money lets star fighting for legacy (sic).”
As far as the Hall of Fame fighter was concerned, “Canelo-Charlo (was a) super boring fight,” In other words, it certainly didn’t help the sport of boxing. “I mean he just showed up for a paycheck,” De La Hoya said of Charlo. But De la Hoya wasn’t done. “Canelo, obviously like I said, on quicksand throwing bombs,” he continued. “He won easy. But anyway, if we want boxing to survive, if we want boxing to thrive, we need super fights all the time.”
De La Hoya clearly sees boxing as a sport in need of repair – the kind of repair that will take more than one person to handle. “Fighters must fight each other,” he said. “We have to come together, promoters, Eddie Hearn, Al Haymon, Bob Arum, whoever is out there – let’s come together, I’m calling you out. Let’s come together, let’s meet, the power of the minds, and come up with something because boxing can die. I’m calling you all out, let’s do this.”
De La Hoya certainly knows about the importance of big fights that fans want to see. During his illustrious ring career, he fought in a list of them. Whether it was Ike Quortey, Shane Mosley, Ricardo Mayorga, Pernell Whitaker, Julio Caesar Chavez, Felix Trinidad, Floyd Mayweather, Fernando Vargas, Bernard Hopkins, Manny Pacquiao or any number of name fighters, De La Hoya knew how to draw in eyeballs and frequently engaged in some terrific ring battles. He may not have always won, but De Ha Hoya was always game for the big event.
With that being said, boxing has indeed had – or will have – some major fights this year. De La Hoya’s own protégé for instance, Ryan Garcia, fought a highly lucrative battle with Gervonta Davis (one which ended with Garcia getting knocked out). Then, of course, there was Terence Crawford’s destruction of Errol Spence on his way to welterweight supremacy. Plus, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have finally signed to fight for the heavyweight champion of the world. Yet if De La Hoya is arguing that this sort of thing should be a regular thing, then the man is absolutely right.
