De la Hoya: Canelo's defeat was on Hearn's conscience, Bivol was unknown before

CEO of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya strongly believes that his rival promoter Eddie Hearn from Matchroom made a big mistake by organizing a fight between Saul Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol.

Canelo, the undisputed super middleweight champion, moved up to light heavyweight last month in Las Vegas to take on Bivol for the WBA title. Bivol outboxed Canelo in twelve rounds for a dominant unanimous decision victory.

De La Hoya's company has promoted Canelo for over a decade. The Mexican superstar left Golden Boy in 2020.

De La Hoya saw no reason for Canelo to face a fighter like Bivol because he felt the Russian represented too much risk for very little reward at this point in Canelo's career.

“It was a lose-lose situation for everyone. Nobody knew Bivol at all. I would also work with Bivol to make his name bigger because no one knew who he was before he fought Canelo. He was nobody, he was nobody," De La Hoya told The MMA Hour.

“Now Canelo has a promoter [Hearn] who is clearly not from the world of boxing. He really doesn't know the rules of the game. Because of him, Canelo lost, it was the wrong move. There was no hype at all in Las Vegas. Canelo is now the superstar of the sport. Eddie Hearn didn't do justice to Canelo when he arranged for him to meet Bivol."

“Hearn has a lot of fights that mean nothing, especially here in the US. He may be a good promoter in the UK and builds the careers of European fighters, but here in the US it means nothing,” De La Hoya said.

Canelo will return to the ring on September 17 when he faces Gennady Golovkin in their trilogy.