Oscar De La Hoya is not a fan of how Canelo Alvarez is choosing to spend the final chapter of his legendary boxing career. Speaking with Ariel Helwani on The Ariel Helwani Show, the Hall of Fame fighter-turned-promoter was asked whether he was surprised to see his former fighter competing in Saudi Arabia as he winds down. "I'm not surprised. He's sold out. He's a sellout," De La Hoya said.
Alvarez, 36, will return on October 31 against undefeated WBC super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Halloween showdown begins what Canelo has indicated could be the final handful of fights of his career, with retirement openly discussed as getting closer.
De La Hoya specifically criticized the timing and the location. He argued Canelo should be fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend in May and around Mexican Independence Day in September - dates steeped in Mexican boxing tradition that Alvarez has headlined for much of his career. "You should be fighting on your Mexican holidays, the final leg of your career, the final hurrah," De La Hoya said. "Go out there and fight for your Mexican fans."
He also questioned whether Mbilli deserved the opportunity at all. "I respect all fighters. I respect Mbilli, but I really don't know how he got there to deserve this title shot," De La Hoya said.
The criticism is the latest flare-up in one of boxing's most bitter promoter-fighter feuds. De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions guided the early years of Alvarez's career before their acrimonious split, and the two have traded barbs ever since - over money, loyalty, and legacy. De La Hoya has long positioned himself as a defender of boxing tradition against the sport's migration to Saudi Arabia, where massive purses funded by the kingdom's entertainment authority have redrawn the sport's economics.
Alvarez's camp has not directly responded to the "sellout" charge, but the fighter's rationale is well understood: the Saudi bouts offer purses far beyond what Las Vegas or Mexico could stage, and at 36, with nothing left to prove competitively, maximizing earnings in a short farewell run is a defensible strategy - one many fighters before him would have taken.
The October 31 card will test whether the Riyadh experiment can deliver the atmosphere of a classic Canelo date. For De La Hoya, though, the verdict is already in: a Mexican icon closing his career anywhere but before Mexican fans, on Mexican holidays, is a betrayal of the tradition that made him.