LAS VEGAS – Whether he is making, suggesting or rejecting fights, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh is currently the straw that is stirring boxing’s drink.
That was never more obvious than on Thursday, as promoter and former world champion Oscar De La Hoya addressed two of the sport’s more high-profile fights.
The first was Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s decision to fight unbeaten but untested Edgar Berlanga rather than unbeaten former super middleweight champion David Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs).
“You take a look at Canelo, for instance … Canelo is outpricing himself even with Turki,” De La Hoya told BoxingScene at Thursday’s news conference for Saturday’s junior middleweight tilt at Mandalay Bay between unbeaten Vergil Ortiz Jr. (21-0, 21 KOs) and World Boxing Council 154-pound interim titleholder Serhii Bohachuk (24-1, 23 KOs).
The more De La Hoya contemplated the lavish funds Alalshikh is heaping on fighters, the more aghast he grew that Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) hasn’t bitten.
“That’s how afraid [Alvarez] is of Benavidez. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen it in my life,” De La Hoya said. “When I was coming up in boxing, you outprice yourself when you don’t want to fight. That’s the bottom line. It’s a shame that Canelo is not wanting to fight the very best.”
Another De La Hoya fighter may be nearing accepting Alalshikh money, as a lightweight title fight between WBC titleholder Shakur Stevenson and consensus No. 1 contender William Zepeda, a Golden Boy fighter from Mexico, is moving closer to reality.
“It’s interesting. I would love to make that fight,” De La Hoya said. “We’re going to look at those options. If Turki wants to put that on one of his cards and wants to make it a huge event, I would be stupid not to do it.
“It’s a fight people want to see. So I’ll sit down with William Zepeda, and he already told me, ‘I’ll fight anybody you tell me to fight, Oscar.’ If that’s the route we’re going to go, so be it.”
A similar conversation is playing out in the camp of just-dethroned WBA 140-pound titleholder Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz, of Mexico, whose Saturday title loss to Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela tones down the buzz that was hovering over Cruz before his loss in the co-main of Alalshikh’s card in Los Angeles.
“I’d like to see a rematch, but I’m not sure [Cruz] can turn the tables,” ProBox TV “Top Stories” analyst Paulie Malignaggi said. “It may be that this just isn’t his weight class.”
The difficulty of the rematch is that Cruz has a style-matchup problem against tall southpaws like Valenzuela.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be any different,” ProBox TV analyst Chris Algieri said on the show. “Rayo may be getting better.”
As for another talent-heavy division, the cast saw Crawford as the most powerful figure at 154 pounds as he moves toward becoming the sport’s first three-time undisputed in the four-belt era.
WBA titleholder Crawford is positioning himself for some critical bouts, starting with perhaps capturing the WBO belt if unified champion Sebastian Fundora fails to fight him and instead goes after Errol Spence Jr.
That would free Crawford to add a belt and move toward the junior middleweight division.