Before he turned his hand to promoting, Oscar De La Hoya was one of the sport’s most prominent stars.
‘The Golden Boy’ enjoyed top amateur success at the 1992 Olympics before turning over and fighting his way to becoming boxing’s biggest box office star, later giving way to Floyd Mayweather.
After hanging up his gloves, De La Hoya took to the business side and began to build the next generation of fighters, most notably Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
Despite a bitter split, the 51-year-old still recognises Canelo’s star power and recently said he would be one half of the biggest fight in boxing – the other being two-time super-middleweight champion and current number one contender David Benavidez.
Speaking on the Pound for Pound podcast, De La Hoya said it ‘could be huge.’
“I think the biggest fight to make right now, yeah, it’s Canelo-Benavidez. It’s the biggest, biggest fight. Who knows? Maybe Canelo saying that he wants $200 million is not farfetched, because that fight can be huge.”
De La Hoya suggested that Canelo may look to have the fight streamed on Amazon Prime, currently in a deal with PBC, or even Netflix, the broadcasting giant set to mark its boxing debut with Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson later this year.
The issue behind the fight doesn’t lie with promoters or broadcasters though, rather the champion himself. Although it’s a match-up fans are demanding, Canelo doesn’t share the excitement. As De La Hoya said, he has put a price tag of $200 million on it whilst also saying he feels Benavidez shouldn’t be fighting at super-middleweight.
He is expected to return later this year with an opponent yet to be announced.
