Finding an opponent for Canelo Alvarez these days resembles politicians trying to pass a bill in Congress: it’s a slow, excruciating, and divisive process.

What seemed like a promising list of fighters for Alvarez’s fall return, including top talents Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Billy Joe Saunders, has now dwindled down to the lowly crop of John Ryder, David Lemieux, and in the latest development…Jason Quigley, who, it should be noted, was pummeled and stopped by Tureano Johnson last year.

Oscar De La Hoya, the head of Golden Boy, which promotes Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs), put the problem squarely on the bloated shoulders of opposing fighters and their greedy, Mephistophelean managers.  

“Fighters these days they price themselves out because they don’t want to fight,” De La Hoya said on the recent episode of the SI Boxing Podcast. “They price themselves out because they have advisers whispering in their ears that they’re worth more than what they’re really are.

“It’s frustrating. It’s difficult, but like I said, we’ve been in this business for a long time. We know how to deal with teams, fighters, with managers, with everyone that is talking in the fighter’s ear. We’ll get this done. We’ve never failed anybody and we’ll continue to deliver the best fights possible.”

De La Hoya, 47, stressed that prospective opponents need to understand that the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown off the usual financial equations, which is to say, pay cuts are in order.

“The fact that you fight Canelo doesn’t mean you should be making triple or quadruple the amount you’re making now,” De La Hoya said. “You have to take into consideration the pandemic. It’s different times now and fighters have to realize that they have to take pay cuts.”

Moreover, De Le Hoya pushed back at the idea that any Alvarez opponent is automatically entitled to an outlandish payday, just by virtue of the fact that he gets to face the Mexican superstar.

“That’s what fighters don’t realize,” De La Hoya said. "You have to beat the champion in order to make champion money.”

Still, De La Hoya is hopeful that they will wrap up a deal in the next few days.

“We have pending meetings [with Team Canelo] this week,” he said. “We are working every single day day in day out to get this done… It’s been a very difficult process but we’re confident that we’ll have something in writing, something nailed down in the next few days.”