Oscar De La Hoya and Turki Alalshikh of Saudi Arabia have teamed up to make major boxing matches happen. De La Hoya was in Los Angeles last weekend for the U.S. debut of Riyadh Season at the BMO stadium, an event headlined by a junior middleweight championship fight between Terence Crawford and WBA champ Israil Madrimov.
Crawford emerged victorious, becoming a four-division world champion, and called out Mexican star Canelo Alvarez for a potential mega fight. Alalshikh expressed interest in making Canelo vs. Crawford the next big matchup.
De La Hoya praised His Excellency Turki Alalshikh for his investment in the sport of boxing. “Look, the one thing I respect about Your Excellency Turki (Alalshikh) is that he wants to make the best fights,” said De La Hoya.
De La Hoya, who was at a school charity event in Clark County, Nevada, also noted to the media that the money offered by Alalshikh is reasonable. He pointed out that fighters like Canelo, who demand unrealistic amounts of money, are effectively pricing themselves out of fights to avoid admitting they don’t want to compete.
“That’s basically it. A lot of fighters, you know, they price themselves out, so the fans lose and we can’t watch those fights. Now Turki’s coming in, paying money, but he is not paying absurd amounts that fighters are not worth. He is being reasonable and paying premiums. A perfect example is Canelo (Alvarez) wanting $200 million to fight (Terence) Crawford. In other words, that means he doesn’t want to fight; that’s basically it. I just feel that Turki is a breath of fresh air. He is making the fights people want to see, and we are all working together,” said De La Hoya.
Fans have accused Canelo of also ducking undefeated super middleweight David Benavidez, he also requested $200 million to fight Benavidez and said he doesn’t need to fight him because his legacy is already set.
Canelo is scheduled to defend his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles against undefeated Puerto Rican American contender Edgar Berlanga on September 14 in Las Vegas.
Muki is a long time boxing fan and enjoys Mixed Martial Arts. He has been writing boxing articles since he was a teen and his favorite fighters of the past are Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Prince Naseem Hamed. Favorite MMA fighters are Khabib Nurmagomedov, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko.