By Keith Idec
Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya thinks Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Amir Khan also will fight for an unofficial title when they meet May 7 in Las Vegas for Alvarez’s WBC middleweight championship.
He feels the winner will become the new top dog of the sport - with the recently announced retirements of superstars Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather announced his retirement last September and Pacquiao is now a retired fighter as of last Saturday night.
Canelo-Khan takes place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds from the newly constructed T-Mobile Arena. Khan, who holds the WBC's silver title at 147-pounds, will move up by eight pounds for the HBO Pay-Per-View headliner.
“Now that Pacquiao retired, Mayweather’s retired, the winner of this fight becomes the man,” De La Hoya said during a conference call Tuesday. “And it doesn’t happen often, including other sports, where just because you beat the man [it] doesn’t make you the man. But in this case here, you have two elite fighters, elite athletes, who are at the top of their career, the top of their game. And whether Amir wins or Canelo wins, the winner is gonna be the man in boxing for a very long time.”
Mexico’s Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) already has been part of the second-highest grossing pay-per-view boxing event in the sport’s history (his September 2013 loss to Mayweather). England’s Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) hasn’t headlined a major pay-per-view card during his 10-year pro career.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
