By Edward Chaykovsky
WBC/WBA welterweight and junior middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. came out swinging with both hands, when it came to the subject of Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya.
The relationship between Mayweather and De La Hoya has always been tense, dating back to their pre-fight promotion in 2007. But De La Hoya's company co-promoted Mayweather's fights for the last seven years. Most knew that relationship was coming to an end when Mayweather's close friend, Richard Schaefer, quit his post as Golden Boy CEO in June. And then Mayweather's company, Mayweather Promotions, obtained their own promotional license in Las Vegas.
Mayweather believes De La Hoya betrayed Showtime by taking Saul "Canelo" Alvarez across the street to HBO for a multi-year agreement. For most of his career, Mayweather had fought on HBO and in 2013 he signed an exclusive three year contract with Showtime.
Mayweather's anger could also be fueled by De La Hoya's recent statements, making it known that he intends to secure Cinco De Mayo weekend (May 2) and Mexican Independence Day weekend (September 12) for Canelo - and those are the two dates that Mayweather has fought on for the last two years and plans to use in 2015.
"Oscar De La Hoya has always been disloyal; very disloyal. He was very disloyal to Richard Schaefer. Richard Schaefer built that company from the ground up. I don't have anything against Eric Gomez at all, but De La Hoya is a piece of sh*t. Oscar is a snake. Stephen Espinoza, he's been more than fair. It gets no bigger than Showtime...if they feel like they can compete, well then let's see," Mayweather told Fighthype.com.
"Like I said before, Oscar's a snake. Any fighter that's in boxing right now, keep a close eye on Oscar. He's a snake. If you want to be treated fair, come over to Mayweather Promotions."