De La Hoya Slams Canelo Vs. Berlanga: “Robbery At This Point”

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya used his ‘Clap Back Thursdays’ social media rant this week to trash the Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga in nine days on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The event sells for $89.99, live on DAZN PPV, and De La Hoya feels that the price is out of alignment with the level of a fight that Canelo-Berlanga shapes up to be, which is a mismatch. The PPV price for this event is too high and should have been reduced to reflect that Canelo is facing a prospect instead of a quality fighter.

Lingering Bitterness

De La Hoya is still bitter about Canelo leaving Golden Boy Promotions in 2020 because he was his flagship fighter for many years, bringing in good money for the company, no matter who he faced.

Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) isn’t a bad fighter for being an unfinished prospect, but he’s just not ready for this level of a fight.

Ideally, Berlanga should have waited three to five years to develop before fighting Canelo, but he couldn’t afford to do that because he was in a hurry to “get that bag.”

The fans who pay for this event will suffer for it when the match fails to deliver entertainment. If the undercard was good, it would help lessen the misery for the paying fans, but it’s as bad as the Canelo-Berlanga main event.

PPV Price Outrage

“We’re away from the boxing match that nobody asked for and the UFC event that everybody will be watching,” said promoter Oscar De La Hoya on his Clap Back Thursdays on social media, talking about Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga event on DAZN PPV on September 14th, which is priced at $89.99.

“Canelo is fighting Berlanga, another snoozefest. They’re trying to sell a PPV for $90 at a $500 minimum in person. It’s just robbery at this point to pay for another lame Canelo that always goes the distance against a sub-par opponent.

“I love the sport of boxing more than anything, and I will be watching boxing matches anywhere,” said De La Hoya.

A Better Matchup for Berlanga

Berlanga is out of place as Canelo’s opponent for this event, and he would be better off fighting one of the undercard fighters on September 14th, like Caleb Plant.

The New Yorker Berlanga would likely be an underdog if he faced the former IBF super middleweight champion Plant, but it would still be a much better match-up than him facing Canelo.