By Miguel Rivera
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs), is hoping the Mexican superstar will knock Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) out.
Canelo will challenge Golovkin for the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight titles on September 16th.
De La Hoya's company promoted last Saturday's HBO Pay-Per-View from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, which saw Canelo dominated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. over twelve rounds.
The sold-out crowd, at Canelo-Chavez, were very disappointed with the one-sided action and booed the outcome. Chavez Jr. barely did much of anything and Canelo was unable to put him away.
Now Canelo is gearing up to face the most dangerous opponent of his young career. Golovkin has knocked out 23 of his last 24 opponents. The only opponent to last the twelve round distance with Golovkin is Daniel Jacobs, and that contest took place in March at Madison Square Garden in New York.
This time around, De La Hoya wants his company superstar to close the show with a big statement for the paying public.
"I'm looking for a knockout. I want the knockout. Because, first of all, I'm a boxing fan. Of course I am a promoter, who is looking at the business aspect and that is very clear, because it is something that benefits everyone. But as a simple boxing fan, what I want is to see a great fight. A classic fight, and I want to see a knockout. 'Why? Because that's what people want to see," De La Hoya told ESPN Deportes.
There were a lot of critics who were angry over Canelo's fight with Chavez Jr., but De La Hoya advised his boxer to ignore those people.
"There will always be critics, that is logical and necessary. But I've always told Canelo, that for every critic that you have, you have a million followers who are supporting you. That's why, I think, the more critics there are, the more fans there are that support you," De La Hoya said.