Promoter Oscar De La Hoya verbally attacked British fans for being excited over reports that negotiations were starting for a fight between Canelo Alvarez and British fighter Chris Eubank Jr. at Wembley Stadium in London.
De La Hoya is off to an early start with his Clapback Thursdays posts, which involve him roasting rival promoters and fighters. His former fighter, Canelo, is always someone De La Hoya has something negative to say about.
“It would sell out Wembley because UK fans don’t know s*** about boxing 😂😂😂,” said Oscar De La Hoya on X, reacting to the news of a potential Canelo Alvarez vs. Chris Eubank Jr. fight being negotiated.
Looking at it from De La Hoya’s side. He views Canelo vs. Eubank Jr. fight as another example of the Mexican star selecting a weak opponent, someone who isn’t a high-level fighter, and certainly not good enough to challenge for Alvarez’s WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles.
The 35-year-old Eubank Jr. (34-3, 25 KOs) doesn’t fight at 168, isn’t ranked in that division, and hasn’t beaten a high-level fighter ever in his career. He recently came off a 13-month layoff to knock out journeyman Kamil Szeremeta in the seventh round on October 12th in Riyadh.
British wouldn’t argue that Eubank Jr. is not a solid fighter who deserves a title shot against Canelo. Eubank Jr. is just a son of a famous British fighter, and all his wins in his inflated record came against lesser opposition. Eubank Jr. is popularity in the UK, but only because of his father.
De La Hoya wants Canelo to fight David Benavidez. He feels he’s been ducking him, and he doesn’t respect that. If not him, he wants Canelo to face Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol, or David Morrell. In other words, fighters that would have an excellent chance of beating him. You can’t say that about Eubank Jr. He’s not going to beat Canelo, and he probably couldn’t even beat his last opponent, Edgar Berlanga. That was a guy that fans had no respect for.
De La Hoya was reacting to this comment from Eubank Jr’s promoter Ben Shalmon to Sky Sports News over negotiations starting for Canelo-Eubank Jr:
“We’ve already started small conversations around the Canelo fight. If he’s ever going to fight in the UK, that’s the fight, and that would sell out Wembley Stadium.”
