Eddie Hearn was up in arms on Thursday in response to Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya criticizing him for matching superstar Canelo Alvarez against John Ryder for the next title defense of his undisputed super middleweight championship on May 6th instead of putting him in with talented opposition that fans want to see him against, like David Benavidez, for instance.
De La Hoya stated that Canelo is “regressing, fighting all these British fighters” instead of the “tough” opposition that will help his legacy.
The British fighters that De La Hoya is referring to that Canelo has fought that he feels did nothing for his legacy are these chaps:
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Rocky Fielding
- Callum Smith
Canelo easily beat all three of Hearn’s above fighters in mismatches, and they’ve since done zero done nothing with their respective careers.
American fans want to see Canelo fight the best by facing these killers:
- David Benavidez
- Dmitry Bivol
- David Morrell
- Artur Beterbiev
- Jermall Charlo
- Jermell Charlo
There’s an excellent chance that Canelo would lose to all of those fighters, perhaps badly in the case of Beterbiev, Benavidez, Morrell, and Dmitry Bivol.
You can argue that even Caleb Plant would be greatly preferable to American fans as an opponent or Canelo in a rematch than Ryder. At least Canelo vs. Plant is a pay-per-view-worthy fight on DAZN, but clearly not Canelo-Ryder. U.S. fans want Canelo to run the gauntlet and stop fighting all these gimmes.
If Canelo repeatedly loses to all of the killers, so be it. At least the fans would be seeing Canelo’s fight quality instead of the opposition that they know he’s going to mow down ahead of time.
‘The Gorilla’ Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) is one of Hearn’s fighters in his Matchroom Boxing stable, and he’s been excited for a while about putting the 34-year-old guy with Canelo. Hearn believes that Canelo-Ryder is a great fight, but U.S. fans don’t share his view, repeatedly criticizing the choice of Ryder as Canelo’s next opponent.
American fans point out that Ryder has lost to three of Canelo’s former victims, Rocky Fielding, Billy Joe Saunders, and Callum Smith, and they especially don’t like the idea of having to pay to see Canelo-Ryder “fight on DAZN PPV rather than on the regular app as part of their recently increased monthly or yearly subscription rate.
“I haven’t really seen it [criticism from boxing fans over Canelo’s British opponent, John Ryder, for May 6th. John Ryder is the mandatory, and you’re the undisputed super middleweight champion, and he’s the interim [WBO] world champion. You have to fight your mandatorys,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV, reacting to Oscar De La Hoya’s comments about Ryder not being a good option for Canelo.
“John Ryder has earned his shot. He’s beaten Danny Jacobs, he’s beaten Zach Parker, and the fight gets called. His [Canelo] last three fights have been Caleb Plant, Dmitry Bivol, and Gennadiy Golovkin.
“This is a very good fight in his [Canelo] hometown [Guadalajara]. A smaller fight than normal
De La Hoya’s comments that ruffled Hearn’s feathers:
“It seems like he’s regressing inside the ring; he’s regressing in terms of opponents,” said De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV about Canelo returning to the weak match-making that had been done for him from late 2018 to 2021, which he was matched against three British fighters in gimme level-fights, his sparring partner Avni Yildirim and two shot old guys, Sergey Kovalev & Daniel Jacobs.
“He’s fighting all these British fighters, and it does nothing to his legacy,” De La Hoya continued about Canelo. “I don’t know whose fault that is; I don’t want to mention anything,” said De La Hoya dropping a big hint about it being Hearn’s fault for Canelo fighting the guys he’s been doing lately.
“He has to step up and fight tough opposition, the tough guys, the guys who are out there who can give him a fight. It’s not the John Ryders of this world,” said De La Hoya about Canelo.
