By: Hans Themistode
At one point, Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez were seemingly the best of friends. The promoter/fighter relationship they shared appeared to be just fine over the years as De La Hoya sought to find Alvarez the biggest fights possible.
Whenever asked, De La Hoya wouldn’t hesitate to name Alvarez the best fighter in the world. With that said, things have changed ever since the pair split.
After several years of working closely with one another, Alvarez legally broke free from De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions. Since then, De La Hoya has proceeded to criticize Alvarez and that trend continued once again.
In what appeared to be a picture of Alvarez on Instagram giving a young fighter tips in the ring, De La Hoya took the time to bash the Mexican star for his technique and accused him of ducking a certain fighter.
“Please, this guy does everything wrong,” said De La Hoya on his Instagram account. “Head up when he throws hooks, on his heels, flat footed. What else? Oh he avoids @twincharlo.”
The Instagram handle De La Hoya is referring to belongs to current unified Jr middleweight world champion, Jermell Charlo. While De La Hoya did point him out, the long-time promoter and former multiple division champion could have been alluding to current WBC middleweight champion and twin brother of Jermell in Jermall Charlo.
For a number of years now, Jermall has called for a showdown with Alvarez at every turn. When both De La Hoya and Alvarez were working together, De La Hoya claimed that he sent a lucrative offer to Jermall for a matchup with Alvarez. Yet, he also claimed that Jermall turned it down.
Although Alvarez has mostly ignored his former promoter, this time around, he let him have it.
“Do me a favor and go f*ck yourself,” said Alvarez in response to De La Hoya.
While Jermell Charlo initially stood back to watch the explosive responses between the pair, he chimed in to accuse De La Hoya of lying several years ago and seemingly took the side of Alvarez.
“Listen [I don’t know] if @OscarDeLaHoya lying or not, but in 2014 he promised me or @KingGabRosado the winner get @Canelo..I Won, but he ended up fighting Kirkland, @OscarDeLaHoya Gotta sick again, HOW DO U GO AGAINST YOUR OWN COUNTRYMAN viva Mexico !!!”
Despite it all, Jermell Charlo admits that at one point, a showdown with Alvarez was the one he craved the most. However, with four Jr middleweight titles currently wrapped around his waist and an undisputed contest with WBO belt holder Brian Castano set to take place on July 17th, Charlo isn’t complaining about the path he ultimately took.
“I’m the 154, twin. I WANTED THAT FIGHT 8 years ago, that ship sailed. The road I wanted to take God didn’t let me. Followed his plan and still made it to a satisfying position in my career & life.”
