Oscar De La Hoya on Canelo Alvarez’s decision to move up in weight: ‘I have to respect that.’
Oscar De La Hoya speaks on Canelo Alvarez’s decision to move up to super middleweight, and why he worries about his decision.
Canelo Alvarez (50-1-2, 34KOs) will challenge Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15KOs) for the WBA super middleweight title on Dec. 15 at the Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight will be Alvarez’s debut in the super middleweight division, as well as the third weight class of his professional career. Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya, however, was not all for his fighter’s decision.
“I don’t know how he’s (Alvarez) gonna react,” said De La Hoya. “I don’t know how his body’s gonna take it, the punch; or the pressure. We’ll have to see. I mean, I didn’t want this fight, I didn’t want this weight class. But Canelo’s Canelo, he wanted to make history.”
De la Hoya noted that Alvarez wanted to become one of only a few Mexican boxers to hold titles in three weight divisions. Alvarez previously held titles in the junior middleweight, and middleweight divisions. Now he hopes to do the same at super middleweight.
Alvarez’s fellow countrymen that have accomplished this feat includes Julio Cesar Chavez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales, and Marco Antonio Barrera. After Alvarez challenges Fielding, De La Hoya hopes that he will move back down to middleweight.
“Oh yeah, I’m worried,” said De La Hoya. “It’s a challenge when you move up in weight, it’s a big challenge. It’s his third weight division against a big guy. You saw Fielding, he’s a big guy. So just, you never know.”
It’s not the first time that Alvarez has decided to take a challenge despite the hesitance of De La Hoya. Back in December 2012, then WBA light middleweight champion Austin Trout called out Alvarez; after Trout defeated Miguel Cotto by unanimous decision in a successful title defense.
Alvarez held the WBC light middleweight title at the time, and liked the idea of a unification bout against Trout. De La Hoya had second thoughts on making the fight for many reasons, mostly to protect his fighter. Alvarez was young, only 22 years old; and on the rise in his career.
Trout was also seen as a high risk, low reward fighter; despite that he even held a world title. He also had a very slick and problematic style for his opponents in the ring. Still young in his career, Alvarez also had yet to be tested by a notable opponent. But still, he wanted the fight and made his intentions clear to De La Hoya.
In April 2013, Alvarez went on to defeat Trout by unanimous decision and became the unified junior middleweight champion; while also capturing the vacant The Ring titles. Alvarez will look to have his own decision making pay off again when he challenges the much bigger Fielding, in a weight class that he may be too small for.
