Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions is putting on Saturday night's Showtime Championship Boxing match between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Josesito Lopez. Marcos Villegas was able to catch up with Oscar and speak to him about the fight, Canelo's progress and the legitimacy of the fight.
Here's what Oscar had to say about Alvarez's current place in the sport:
From what I see now, from what I've experienced. Canelo Alvarez is at the top. He's cream of the crop, he's best of the best. He's a special fighter. He can go up against anybody, and when I talk about anybody I mean ANYBODY.
What he'd like to see Canelo do more of going forward:
I was a big fan of the jab. The jab today is a lost art and he's throwing more jabs. Double, triple, to the body, mix it up. He's got a strong, strong solid fast jab and I want him to use it more.
And on Canelo vs. Lopez and the criticism that came with what many perceive as a mismatch:
Criticism? I was hoping to get criticism. Because when you don't have any criticism toward...whatever you do, then something is wrong. We put on a tremendous card and that's the bottom line. That's all there is to it. The fact that it's on Showtime championship boxing, live and not on pay-per-view is an extra bonus. We're going to be able to watch names like Maidana and you know with Ponce De Leon and Jonny Gonzalez and Canelo with Lopez. It's going to be a tremendous, tremendous night of boxing.
But truly, my favorite thing about watch Oscar speak is the way he communicates like a human emoticon.