Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions has issued a statement reacting to the news released on Friday of Canelo Alvarez separating from his company as well as DAZN.
Canelo is reportedly dropping his $280 million lawsuits against Golden Boy and DAZN, but he’s now free of his contracts with them.
Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) has chosen to walk away from the remainder of his 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN, which eight more fights.
It’s a gamble on Canelo’s part to walk away from that kind of money because there are no guarantees that he can make similar money in the next four or five years.
“The lawsuit was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, and we wish Canelo the best moving forward,” De La Hoya said in a statement via Mike Coppinger.
“In a strong partnership with DAZN, we will continue showcasing our wide array of talent, including rising superstars like Ryan Garcia, Jaime Munguia, and Vergil Ortiz, all of whom have the talent and the potential to become the next biggest star in our sport,” said De La Hoya via Mike Coppinger.
In theory, Canelo could make that kind of money as a free agent fighting on pay-per-view, but it would entail him taking fights against guys that might beat him. Once Canelo starts losing, it might result in fewer pay-per-view buys in future fights.
If Canelo can fight the best at 154, 160, 168, and 175, he could make over $300 million in the next five years. But Canelo could be his own worst enemy if he decides to fight guys like Billy Joe Saunders, Avni Yildirim, Callum Smith, and Anthony Dirrell. Those fights won’t sell on PPV.
If Canelo stayed with DAZN, they’d have pushed for him to face Gennadiy Golovkin in a trilogy. They would have probably wanted him to face Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, Dmitry Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev.
Canelo could certainly beat some of those guys, but definitely not all of them. Even with controversial scoring like we’ve seen in several of Canelo’s fights during his career, he’d still have a lot of problems trying to beat those guys.
Benavidez, Bivol, and Beterbiev would be pure heartache for Canelo. If you look at it from that view, it’s a good thing Canelo did leave DAZN because his career likely would have sunk quickly once he started giving the streaming giants that they wanted him to take instead of the ones he wanted against Yildirim and Saunders.
There’s a massive difference in Canelo fighting guys like Benavidez, Bivol, Charlo, and Beterbiev compared to facing Saunders and Yildirim.
The fighters that De La Hoya mentioned from Golden Boy stable are talented ones, but Ortiz might be the only one of that bunch that is capable of capturing a world title. When you take a close look at Ryan, Munguia, and Ortiz, only Ortiz has a future world champion written all over him.
Whether Ortiz can evolve into a fighter as popular as Canelo is highly unlikely, Canelo is a different story altogether. He was destined for greatness a long time ago, and we don’t see the same from Ortiz yet.
