As Mayweather, McGregor holler, Oscar De La Hoya content to let Alvarez-Golovkin speak for itself
A friend of Oscar De La Hoya said he recently urged the legend to set aside his long-running rivalry with Floyd Mayweather Jr. to express some support for Mayweather’s Aug. 26 novelty bout against UFC champion Conor McGregor.
The thinking, said the friend, was that with the massive audience attracted to the curiosity of Mayweather-McGregor, those same fans would appreciate the goodwill and stick around three weeks later to inspect the true classic boxing match of the year that De La Hoya is promoting: Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin on Sept. 16.
De La Hoya, especially after watching the verbal atrocities of the Mayweather-McGregor international press tour, just can’t bring himself to appreciate that show.
“That’s been the Mayweather era,” De La Hoya told The Times and USA Today in a Sunday conversation on the set of filming the Alvarez-Golovkin commercial that will begin airing next month.
“That’s part of the reason I’ve been so vocal toward Mayweather. He’s made [boxing] into a business, just a spectacle. Let’s trash talk and then once the fight comes around, it’s a bore, it’s a dud. It should be the other way.”
De La Hoya is referring to his bout, a showdown between three-belt, unbeaten middleweight champion Golovkin and Alvarez, Mexico’s most popular fighter and a former two-division world champion whose only loss in 51 pro fights is to Mayweather.
“People can see this is a different type of quality fight,” Alvarez said between takes for the commercial, set in a 1930s-era boxing gym in an homage to the vintage feel of his Golovkin matchup.
“Both fighters are professionals. There’s no reason to badmouth anybody. The world sees the difference between the fighters [in this fight and those in Mayweather-McGregor] — fighters who are there to fight and take the sport seriously, and others who are just putting on an entertainment show. People can see all that, the quality. We’re professional. We respect each other. And that’s what boxing is.”
Instead of defending themselves against racial and homophobic taunts as Mayweather and McGregor did last week, Alvarez and Golovkin shared a ring in their commercial and stopped their punches just short in a climactic scene intended to heighten the anticipation for their sold-out meeting at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s refreshing. This is what boxing, what fighting is all about. You have two guys not screaming at each other and not insulting each other,” De La Hoya said. “You have this beautiful picture we’re painting, and then on fight night, you know it’s going to be a war. That’s what true boxing is: two guys who are gentlemen, who are going to unleash everything they’ve got. This fight excites me, to know again that boxing is reaching new heights. This is going to solidify that.”
De La Hoya’s fear is that a record pay-per-view audience may spend $100 for Mayweather-McGregor, then take out their outrage over the likely mismatch by not investing in Alvarez-Golovkin three weeks later.
De La Hoya was asked if he ever believed Mayweather would grow into this type of force after fighting for several years in De La Hoya’s shadow, as McGregor reminded him last week.
“When he was fighting on my undercards, I didn’t really know of him,” De La Hoya said of Mayweather. “He wasn’t making any noise, any progress in terms of market value, and so when I fought him [in 2007], he decided to play the villain, which made a huge difference.
“He figured it all out, how to bring attention to himself. It’s not my style. And Sugar Ray Leonard conducted himself in a positive way. It’s just not my cup of tea.”
De La Hoya said Mayweather’s work as “Money” Mayweather “hasn’t been good for boxing, because fighters now are thinking all about the business and not about the fight. They’re not thinking about the fans.
“People don’t want to see fighters run, to see you win a 12-round decision by out-slicking [the opponent]. People pay their hard-earned money to be entertained, not by dancing around and not being hit. They pay for what Golovkin calls ‘the Big Drama Show.’”
That’s a point of debate, of course, and one that again pits Mayweather versus De La Hoya.
Twitter: @latimespugmire
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