LAS VEGAS – In 2010, Oscar De La Hoya, then a 30-something ex-fighter early in his new career as a full-time promoter, stood in a ballroom at the MGM Grand and declared a then 19-year old Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez to be the future of boxing.
On Wednesday, some fourteen years later, De La Hoya and Álvarez stood in the same room on the same dais, only this time it was De La Hoya addressing stinging remarks at Álvarez and Canelo leaping out of his seat to confront him.
Officially, Wednesday’s press conference was to promote Álvarez’s super middleweight title defense against Jaime Munguía.