Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya had his say on the lawsuit that his biggest star Saul Alvarez filed yesterday.
“Canelo” is suing his longtime promoter and upstart streaming service DAZN over their alleged failure to pay $35 million for his next fight.
The civil suit filed on Tuesday in US district court for the central district of California alleges both Dazn and De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions have breached their respective contracts with the four-weight world champion, causing damages of at least $280m.
DAZN has approved super middleweight titleholders Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders as opponents for Alvarez but does not consider them to be “premium” opponents and does not want to pay Alvarez the $35 million he is due under his contract. What DAZN really wants is a third fight between Alvarez and fellow middleweight star Gennadiy Golovkin, which it also has under exclusive nine-figure contract, but for a variety of reasons that fight won’t be next.
De La Hoya, despite a rocky relationship with Alvarez, came to his defense.
“In my mind, Canelo is willing to fight anyone, obviously, the way he’s proved it many times in his career. He’s willing to fight Billy Joe Saunders; he’s willing to fight Callum Smith. My frustration is DAZN,” De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com in an interview on Tuesday night, just a couple of hours before he learned of the lawsuit. “My frustration is the obligation that DAZN has to its fans and to Canelo.
“Another frustration is DAZN’s obligation to live up to a contract that they signed. That’s a huge frustration. That’s a huge deal-breaker for us. That’s where the frustration is. How can you fight a top-level opponent like Callum Smith, an elite opponent like Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders, and then have DAZN not live by their contract? It doesn’t make sense to me and that’s where the frustration is.”
