Canelo Alvarez has signed on to fight on HBO for the next three years, which has apparently created tensions between Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya and Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza. According to Espinoza, De La Hoya reneged on a verbal agreement and carried out the move in "deceitful" fashion.
De La Hoya has denied any agreement, and said he couldn't keep his star fighter from fighting on HBO, where his star first blossomed.
"Canelo didn't want to hear it. He wanted to be with HBO," De La Hoya told ESPN.com on Sunday night. "The big problem I had was Canelo wants to fight on Cinco de Mayo weekend and he wants Sept. 16 [weekend]. Those are the big Mexican holidays, and he doesn't want to be second to nobody."
Floyd Mayweather Jr., currently the biggest draw in boxing, typically fights on those dates. Showtime is unlikely to bump Mayweather off of those dates to accommodate Alvarez, which seemed to play a role in Alvarez's eagerness to jump ship. De La Hoya, despite working exclusively with Showtime for several years, chose pleasing his top fighter over the network.
"I was stuck between a rock and hard place. Saul wanted to go with HBO, and HBO really wanted him. When you have a 24-year-old fighter who knows that he is the next superstar and has it in his head that he wants to go to HBO, it's a difficult position for me to be in because, obviously, we do a lot fights on Showtime.
"I have to do what Canelo asks me to do," De La Hoya said. "I'm not going to jeopardize my relationship with Canelo. The biggest factor for him was being second to nobody. So that's what I did -- I made the deal with HBO, where he won't be second."
Alvarez's first fight is set for December 6, with Joshua Clottey rumored to be the opponent. Nothing has been finalized, however, and James Kirkland may be in the running to face him instead of Clottey. Kirkland was initially slated to face Gabriel Rosado in November on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs. Sergey Kovalev, but he withdrew from that bout.
"Absolutely, it's a possibility. Maybe Kirkland," De La Hoya said.
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