Oscar De La Hoya blames fellow boxing promoter Eddie Hearn for Canelo Alvarez’s loss to Dmitry Bivol

Oscar De La Hoya has thrown shade at Eddie Hearn following Canelo Alvarez’s defeat to Dmitry Bivol last month.

Over the course of the last few years, Matchroom Boxing has continued to go from strength to strength under the guidance of Eddie Hearn and his team. They’ve promoted some of the biggest names and fighters in the sport and as we look ahead to the future, it’s easy to picture a scenario in which they continue to thrive.

Alas, Canelo’s loss to Bivol wouldn’t have done much to help their brand, with his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya going after Hearn in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.

“It was a lose-lose situation,” De La Hoya said. “Nobody knew Bivol whatsoever. I would have promoted Bivol to get a bigger name, because nobody knew who he was before he fought Canelo. He was irrelevant. He was nobody. We were actually going to face him against [Gilberto] Zurdo Ramirez, but Canelo has a promoter now who doesn’t come from the boxing world. He doesn’t know the fight game, and he got Canelo beat. It was the wrong style. Las Vegas had no buzz whatsoever.

“He’s a character [Hearn], that’s all it is,” De La Hoya said. “The business of boxing, to build superstars, to build champions, it takes a lot of strategy, it takes a lot of insight, knowing the fighters, knowing their styles, and that’s one thing I’m an expert at. When I built Canelo Alvarez, when he crossed the border from Mexico at the tender age of 18 years old and I promoted his first fight, we had a vision. We knew exactly what we had in our hands and we built him to be a monster.

“Look, he’s doing a lot of fights that mean nothing, especially here in the U.S. He might be good promoter in the U.K., and he’s building European fighters, but that means nothing here in the U.S. I know this is a business and he’s partners with DAZN, and obviously I’m partners with DAZN, but let’s just stay in our own lanes and do our jobs right. Let me focus on the U.S. market and build champions, and boxing will keep on thriving for many years to come.”

Quotes via MMA Fighting

Do you agree with Oscar De La Hoya’s assessment of Eddie Hearn?