By Miguel Rivera
Ten years ago, former six division world champion Oscar De La Hoya was undoubtedly the biggest star in the sport. Now he runs one of the biggest promotional companies in the sport, Golden Boy Promotions, and his company promotes one of the biggest stars in the sport, WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs).
For the last few years, Canelo was playing third fiddle to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. That scenario has now changed. Mayweather retired last September after winning a twelve round decision over Andre Berto. Pacquiao is expected to retire after April's trilogy bout with Timothy Bradley.
"We promote the best fighter, the star of the sport. As Mayweather and Pacquiao are leaving [the sport], Canelo is the star of boxing," De La Hoya said.
The 25-year-old fight is now a two-division world champion. He showed his drawing power last year when his fight with Cotto generated over 900,000 purchases on pay-per-view. It was the second most successful boxing pay-per-view of the year. Only the super-fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao did better.
De La Hoya predicts that Canelo will have a very long career. He says the red-haired fighter is not only the top superstar in the United States, he is reviving the sport of boxing in Mexico.
"Canelo will continue writing his own history and, most importantly, Saul is representing and reviving Mexican boxing," said De La Hoya.
"He's the new face of boxing. Saul just turned 25. At that age who else is facing the best in the world? No one except Canelo and that deserves my respect. He wants to fight the best and prove who is the best."
Canelo will return to the ring on May 7th as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend, likely in Las Vegas. If Canelo is successful, he will head to a fall return in September - potentially against WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin.
