Floyd Mayweather has been praised for handling his career in a business-like manner.
Mayweather was known for his love of making easy work of his opponents for the most money available and even took on fighters whom he could have fought in their primes, like Manny Pacquiao.
He was accused of cherry picking a 23-year-old Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez before Alvarez would go on to dominate the super middleweight division as a two-time undisputed champion.
Canelo, who faces Terence Crawford in September, lost by majority decision to the undefeated boxer in the first loss of his career at the time.
But the Mexican was warned by his then-promoter before taking the fight.
I warned Canelo Alvarez not to take Floyd Mayweather where he was ‘schooled’, says boxing legend
His former promoter and six-weight world champion, Oscar De La Hoya, revealed in an interview with Shannon Sharpe in 2024, that he told him not to pursue the bout against one of the all-time greats.
De La Hoya said: “Canelo, who I actually told, do not fight Floyd, because you are too young, you have no experience.
“(He was the bigger man) No, he is, but he is 21 years old, flexing his muscles like ‘I can take on Floyd, I am the very best’.
“Guess what you got schooled. I mean, it wasn’t even close. My point is Floyd played his cards right.”
‘Golden Boy’ and Saul Alvarez have had a bitter feud since they split in 2020, which has continued after the promoter tried to use one of his fighters, Jaime Munguia, to unsuccessfully dethrone the great.
De La Hoya was also a former co-promoter of ‘Money’ during his career and was part of the promotion for his fight against Ricky Hatton.
Oscar De La Hoya revealed the interesting reason the Floyd Mayweather Jr rematch never happened
Their partnership stemmed from Floyd’s split decision win over the head of Golden Boy Promotions in 2007 and was never avenged by the Mexican for one reason.
Ever the master businessman, an anticipated rematch never came to fruition because the millionaire used a clever loophole to avoid it.
Speaking to Sharpe, De La Hoya revealed: “Why didn’t we have a rematch? This is something the world doesn’t know, and I am actually going to say it now: we had a rematch for a year contractually.
“Guess what Floyd did? He retired for one year and one day, let the contract expire.”
It is a wonder what could have happened in the second fight, but Oscar insisted in the interview it would be the same outcome because his body was ‘broken’.