De La Hoya Leaning To Las Vegas For Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. Clash

By Miguel Rivera

Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya is leaning to Las Vegas as the location of choice for the HBO Pay-Per-View battle between Mexican superstars Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

The two boxers are scheduled to fight on May 6th, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend. A catch-weight of 164.5-pounds was agreed upon by both sides.

"It's time for Las Vegas to have a fight of this magnitude on May 6, but we'll see," De La Hoya said to ESPN Deportes. " We are in the middle of that process, we are talking to the parties who are interested [to host this fight] and everyone is interested."

De La Hoya has already heard proposals from Dallas, specifically from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and the MGM Grand. He hopes to announce the venue of the fight in the coming days.

"Obviously I have to do my best for my fighter and I have to do what is best for the boxers. We are talking to Dallas, to Las Vegas," admitted De La Hoya.

Canelo had his last bout at AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL's Cowboys in Arlington, where he beat Liam Smith and attracted just over 50,000 people to the venue last September. Prior to that, in May, he opened the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas against Amir Khan, although on that occasion he could not fill the entire venue

De La Hoya said, on the other hand, that he had no major problems negotiating the fight with Chavez Jr., who is advised by Al Haymon. Golden Boy and Haymon are currently involved in a multi-million dollar legal battle in federal court.

"Obviously we have a legal situation against Al Haymon, but we were able to reach an agreement with Chavez Jr.," De La Hoya said. "It was not difficult at all. We're going to take it one step at a time [with respect to working with Haymon fighters]. Canelo wanted this fight and we gave it to him. Whatever the boxers tell us to do, we do it."