De La Hoya: Forget about Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather should pursue GGG-Canelo winner

Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar De La Hoya believes if Floyd Mayweather wants to fight again, he should nix the Conor McGregor bout and face Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez.

Oscar De La Hoya has been making media appearances to kick off promotion of the newly announced middleweight title mega-fight between Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) and Canelo Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs). The retired boxing great and founder of Golden Boy Promotions — De La Hoya is Canelo’s long-time promoter — went on ESPN’s First Take to talk about the matchup he personally dubbed “the biggest fight ever.” (Note: It’s not remotely the biggest fight ever, but it’s indeed a big fight!)

“It’s only been about a year and a half since people were talking about this fight,” De La Hoya told First Take co-host Stephen A. Smith. “I didn’t wait six or seven years to make this fight happen. There was a lot of pressure from the fans, they were speaking their voice, but I had a plan and now that Canelo got a feel of [the middleweight division by fighting] at 164 lbs … look, September was always the target date and it’s finally here and I can’t wait, it’s gonna be a huge event.”

Unlike Canelo’s previous forays above junior middleweight (154 lbs), there will be no catchweight stipulation here. Both men will compete at the maximum middleweight limit of 160 lbs, and there’s no rehydration clause for either fighter. De La Hoya later said that he’s working on finalizing the venue.

Towards the end of the interview, Max Kellerman brought up host Molly Qerim’s statement that some people consider Floyd Mayweather to be the greatest boxer ever, and noted that De La Hoya fought Mayweather to a split decision loss in their lucrative 2007 matchup. That segued into Oscar suggesting that Mayweather bypass the Conor McGregor bout and instead either rematch Canelo or face GGG, depending on the outcome of that showdown.

“I was actually very surprised that I did so well against Floyd later on in my career,” De La Hoya said. “But anyway, look, even Floyd…after this fight with Canelo and Golovkin, forget about ‘The Notorious’ one. Forget about a fighter who has zero experience, who has zero fights, who has zero amateur experience, forget about that! Mayweather’s better than that. Mayweather, look, if you want to fight and have a rematch against Canelo or a fight against Golovkin, go after them. After Canelo and Golovkin fight, go after the winner.”

Mayweather has never fought at middleweight before and started his hall-of-fame career out at 130 lbs. He’s never weighed more than 151 lbs even in his few trips past the welterweight limit, including his victory against Alvarez in 2013. Golovkin has been a middleweight forever. This is a long-winded way to say “Hahahahahahaha nope.”

Golovkin vs. Canelo airs live on HBO pay-per-view on Saturday, September 16th. You can watch De La Hoya’s complete interview at the top of the page.

Golden Boy Promotions founder Oscar De La Hoya believes if Floyd Mayweather wants to fight again, he should nix the Conor McGregor bout and face Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez.

Oscar De La Hoya has been making media appearances to kick off promotion of the newly announced middleweight title mega-fight between Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) and Canelo Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs). The retired boxing great and founder of Golden Boy Promotions — De La Hoya is Canelo’s long-time promoter — went on ESPN’s First Take to talk about the matchup he personally dubbed “the biggest fight ever.” (Note: It’s not remotely the biggest fight ever, but it’s indeed a big fight!)

“It’s only been about a year and a half since people were talking about this fight,” De La Hoya told First Take co-host Stephen A. Smith. “I didn’t wait six or seven years to make this fight happen. There was a lot of pressure from the fans, they were speaking their voice, but I had a plan and now that Canelo got a feel of [the middleweight division by fighting] at 164 lbs … look, September was always the target date and it’s finally here and I can’t wait, it’s gonna be a huge event.”

Unlike Canelo’s previous forays above junior middleweight (154 lbs), there will be no catchweight stipulation here. Both men will compete at the maximum middleweight limit of 160 lbs, and there’s no rehydration clause for either fighter. De La Hoya later said that he’s working on finalizing the venue.

Towards the end of the interview, Max Kellerman brought up host Molly Qerim’s statement that some people consider Floyd Mayweather to be the greatest boxer ever, and noted that De La Hoya fought Mayweather to a split decision loss in their lucrative 2007 matchup. That segued into Oscar suggesting that Mayweather bypass the Conor McGregor bout and instead either rematch Canelo or face GGG, depending on the outcome of that showdown.

“I was actually very surprised that I did so well against Floyd later on in my career,” De La Hoya said. “But anyway, look, even Floyd…after this fight with Canelo and Golovkin, forget about ‘The Notorious’ one. Forget about a fighter who has zero experience, who has zero fights, who has zero amateur experience, forget about that! Mayweather’s better than that. Mayweather, look, if you want to fight and have a rematch against Canelo or a fight against Golovkin, go after them. After Canelo and Golovkin fight, go after the winner.”

Mayweather has never fought at middleweight before and started his hall-of-fame career out at 130 lbs. He’s never weighed more than 151 lbs even in his few trips past the welterweight limit, including his victory against Alvarez in 2013. Golovkin has been a middleweight forever. This is a long-winded way to say “Hahahahahahaha nope.”

Golovkin vs. Canelo airs live on HBO pay-per-view on Saturday, September 16th. You can watch De La Hoya’s complete interview at the top of the page.