De La Hoya: Canelo Right To Pull Off Mayweather Show

Oscar De La Hoya, who is Canelo Alvarez’s promoter, explains that if he were in the same position as Alvarez, he would have also pulled off the May 4 card that will be headlined by the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Robert Guerrero

As most boxing fans are well aware, Alvarez was originally slated for a 154-pound title unification fight on that show in Las Vegas, but made the decision to back out of that in favor of headlining his own show, which is slated to take place Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio. His opponent will be the estimable Austin Trout, whose claim to fame, as it stands now, is a victory over Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden in December.

Alvarez’s position all along, as far as he explains it, was that he was not particularly interested in being the main support for Mayweather’s fight, but it was his understanding that a bout with Mayweather, which would have produced by far the largest purse of his career, would be taking place in September.

Mayweather is the type who doesn’t seem to want to commit to anything in writing, looking to leave his options open, and apparently he was not ready to put his name on the dotted line toward such a thing. At that point, it became a matter of whether Alvarez was willing to place himself in a certain position without having any assurances.

Obviously, he did not.

This, Alvarez is engaging in a branding exercise of sorts; his evaluation, and that of his handlers, is that being the top dog on his own show was better than being second banana at someone else’s party. It is his way of demonstrating that he can garner big ratings and a big live audience without having to be someone’s foil.

Source:boxinginsider