Canelo, De La Hoya animosity spills over as they tear into each other
Munguia looks on as champion and promoter nearly come to blows
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LAS VEGAS — Whatever hostilities may take place in the fight between undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and unbeaten challenger Jaime Munguia on Saturday (Prime Video PPV, DAZN PPV, PPV.com, 8 p.m., $89.99) at T-Mobile Arena, it was not at the forefront of the fight week news conference.
Instead, there was a fiery eruption of the long feud between Alvarez and Munguia’s promoter, Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya, that took center stage on Wednesday.
The good-natured and humble Munguia has never been one to talk trash or get into it verbally with opponents and while Alvarez has no problem doing so, he is never the instigator. So while the expectations are for an all-action fight, Munguia has not pressed Alvarez’s buttons, which has made for a low-wattage promotion.
But that all changed at the news conference inside the media center at host hotel MGM Grand, where De La Hoya and Alvarez tore into each other in another very public display of their tremendous animosity, which led to their nasty breakup in 2020, when Alvarez bolted from Golden Boy and litigation, since settled, followed.
By the time the news conference was over they had cursed at each other, Alvarez had accused De La Hoya of stealing money from him and former rival Gennadiy Golovkin, and De La Hoya had thrown Alvarez’s past failed drug tests in his face and made veiled threats of more litigation.
It was just the series of fireworks the sleepy promotion needed.
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