Boxing

Oscar De La Hoya Digs Up Canelo Alvarez Dirt With 1-Word Diss

Oscar De La Hoya revived a common gripe about Canelo Alvarez during a recent interview.
Grant Young|
IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

Way back in 2010, legendary boxer Oscar De La Hoya signed Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (who was then a 19-year-old promising Mexican prospect in the welterweight division) to Golden Boy Promotions. This proved to be the most shrewd signing of De La Hoya's career as a promoter, given that Canelo blossomed into arguably the biggest star in all of boxing over the last 15 years.

While Canelo came up short against Terence Crawford in his most recent fight in September, nobody can deny that Canelo has been a great longtime champion and earned undisputed status in the super middleweight division before Crawford took it from him.

That said, Canelo's recent success came without De La Hoya by his side, as the relationship between them soured in the wake of Canelo filing a lawsuit against Golden Boy (and DAZN) back in 2020 for an alleged breach of contract.

Ever since then, Canelo and De La Hoya have been at each other's necks, never missing an opportunity to throw shade or publicly disrespect the other. One example of this was when De La Hoya told Canelo to "show some f****** respect" and mentioned a positive PED test Canelo once had during a May 2024 press conference, provoking Canelo enough for him to have a go at De La Hoya.

Canelo Alvarez
IMAGO / PxImages

Oscar De La Hoya Disses Canelo With 1-Word 'Duck' Comment

While there are very few holes in Canelo's resumè, one thing that fans always point to is the fact that he has never fought undefeated boxer David Benavidez, despite Benavidez calling him out for years and being the top contender in Canelo's super middleweight division.

Canelo's apparent apathy toward fighting Benavidez has raised many eyebrows and even convinced some that Canelo was ducking Benavidez because he thought he would have a hard time beating him. De La Hoya seemingly alluded to this when playing a one-word association game with DAZN, which was posted to the global sports streaming service's X account on November 3.

When De La Hoya was asked one word to associate with Canelo, he just remained silent for a few seconds, looking off the screen, before saying, "That's my answer."

However, he clearly wanted to get a more obvious jab at Canelo in, because he responded, "Canelo" when he was asked to associate a word with "Duck".

De La Hoya (who has been among the most critical about Canelo still not having fought Benavidez) clearly couldn't help himself with this one.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.