By Elisinio Castillo

In 2008, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar de la Hoya was the heavily favored opponent of Manny Pacquiao, who was moving from lightweight to the welterweight division.

Most observers, including De La Hoya himself, saw the fight as a one-sided contest. Everyone felt Pacquiao, who had struggled two fights earlier with Juan Manuel Marquez at 130-pounds, would simply be too small for the much larger De La Hoya, who was coming down from junior middleweight.

The fight outcome was not exactly what anyone had predicted. De La Hoya was dominated, beaten up and stopped inside of eight rounds. De La Hoya retired after that contest.

On Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a similar scenario is taking place when Amir Khan moves up from 147-pounds to face WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez at a catch-weight of 155. De La Hoya's company, Golden Boy, is the lead promoter of the event.

The obvious differences in both contests would point to De La Hoya being drained and near the end of his career, while Canelo is only 25-years-old and fighting at a weight where he feels most comfortable.

"I wanted to create a great fight for Cinco De Mayo. It was the first time for Canelo to fight on such an important date. Khan had no promoter but is an idol in Europe, just like Canelo is in Mexico. This is a mega event. It is the speed of Khan against the power of Canelo. This is a fight that will leave memories," De La Hoya told George Ebro.

"I do not believe [the weight will be the difference in the fight]. When I fought with Manny Pacquiao a lot of people criticized me and told me how I would be climbing in the ring against a guy who was going up two divisions. I really thought it was going to be an easy fight. For Canelo, this will be a test because Khan throws a lot of punches and he moves a lot. Neither Mayweather or Pacquiao wanted to fight Khan and Canelo has struggled with fast boxers, like Lara."