Many boxing fans did not expect the way Canelo Alvarez’s fight against Dmitry Bivol turned out to be, and according to Oscar De La Hoya, the blame is on Eddie Hearn for doing the mistake of pitting Canelo against Bivol.
Eddie Hearn doesn’t come from a boxing world: Oscar De La Hoya
The undisputed super middleweight world champion and boxing’s pound for pound king, Canelo emerged as a heavy favorite in his fight against WBA Light Heavyweight champ Bivol on 7th May at the T-Mobile Arena. However, Bivol dominated Canelo throughout the 12 rounds of the fight, before securing a victory via unanimous decision in one of the most shocking results of modern day boxing.
Oscar De La Hoya, the former six division world champion and founder of Golden Boy Promotions that promoted Canelo until 2020, believes there was no reason for Canelo to face someone like Bivol at this stage of his career and it was a huge mistake from Hearn.
“It was a lose-lose situation for everyone. Nobody knew Bivol whatsoever. I would’ve promoted Bivol to [make him] a bigger name because nobody knew who he was before he fought Canelo. He was irrelevant, he was nobody,” De La Hoya said in an interview with The MMA Hour.
“Canelo has a promoter [Hearn] now that obviously doesn’t come from a boxing world,” De La Hoya went on, “He doesn’t really know the fight game. He got Canelo beat, it was the wrong style. Las Vegas had no buzz whatsoever. Canelo is the superstar of the game right now. Eddie Hearn didn’t do no justice to Canelo when he faced him against Bivol.”
“[Hearn is] doing a lot of fights that mean nothing, especially here in the US. He might be a good promoter in the UK and he’s building European fighters but it means nothing here in the US,” added De La Hoya. [H/T Boxingscene.com]
Although Hearn talked about a rematch between Canelo and Bivol in the aftermath of the fight, Canelo, is gearing up for a trilogy fight against longtime rival Gennadiy Golovkin with his 168-pound titles on the line.
