De La Hoya Calls Canelo The Best Pound-For Pound

While Canelo Alvarez openly doubts the loyalty of his promoter Oscar De La Hoya, De La Hoya was elated with the performance Alvarez had on November 2nd.

“We couldn’t be happier with Canelo’s performance,” De La Hoya said of Alvarez’s 11th round knockout of Kovalev inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “You know, his calculation, his game plan, what he was trying to accomplish, we all knew, within Golden Boy, that this fight wasn’t gonna end in one, two, three, six, eight rounds. We knew that this fight was gonna end in 10, 11 rounds, and that’s exactly what happened. Canelo is a fighter who will continue to prove everyone wrong. And I have to admit, at times he proves me wrong. But that’s who Canelo is. Canelo is a fighter who is special, and therefore we must appreciate, we must acknowledge that he is one of the best, if not the best, Mexican fighter [ever].

“But he is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today. And we have to give him that acknowledgement. We have to understand that Canelo moved [up] two weight divisions. To fight at light heavyweight, you can’t tell me that Crawford or Lomachenko or anybody else in boxing is daring to be great, like Canelo. Is anybody else moving up in weight class? Is anybody unifying titles? No. Canelo is, because he wants to be great. He wants to leave a legacy, and that’s what legends do, is leave a legacy and take risks. You know, if you wanna become a great fighter, you have to take risks, and that’s exactly what Canelo did tonight. Yes, it was difficult, but he did a hell of a job.”

Initial Report: Boxing Scene