Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO of Golden Boy has spilt the beans on how the split of his promotional firm and Canelo Álvarez impacted him, stating that it had hurt his feelings.
Four-division world champion Canelo Álvarez parted ways with Golden Boy back in mid-November after he had sued the company as well as streaming service DAZN for breach of contract and became a free agent.
Back then, Oscar De La Hoya had wished Canelo good fortune in his future endeavours inside the ring but recently asserted that the entire incident made a dent in his mind.
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You never want to part ways this way: Oscar De La Hoya wails on Canelo’s departure
“(Canelo leaving is) one fighter and the way we see it is that when you’re a fighter who obviously is at the end of his career,” Oscar De La Hoya said in an exclusive interview with BoxingScene, “he’s not young guy, he’s not a guy who just started his boxing career like Ryan Garcia or Vergil Ortiz or like ‘JoJo’ Diaz or Jamie Munguia — it makes it easier for us to roll our sleeves up and rebuild.”
“You never want to part ways this way. It literally hurt my feelings,” the Golden Boy chief added.
Furthermore, De La Hoya recalled the words of his former promoter and Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, to never hold a personal grudge against a pugilist.
“I remember Bob Arum once telling me when I was younger, ‘Don’t ever, ever make it personal with any fighter. Don’t ever make it personal.’” De La Hoya went on, “he obviously knows by experience. So I finally know what he’s talking about.”
Following his split with Golden Boy, Canelo Álvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) became a free agent and has been preparing for his comeback bout against WBA (Super) super-middleweight titleholder Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) on 19th December at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
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