Oscar De La Hoya Is Furious With The IBF After Stripping Canelo's Title
Oscar De La Hoya was fuming when the International Boxing Federation decided to strip Canelo Alvarez of his middleweight title. The ruling was enforced because the 29-year-old champ failed to negotiate a deal with mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
The IBF has already allowed numerous postponements of the fight. However, the Golden Boy Promotions CEO said that Derevyanchenko never had any intention of challenging Canelo for the middleweight belt.
Canelo's camp tried a last-minute appeal for a unification match against WBO champ Demetrius Andrade but was declined. De La Hoya, who manages Alvarez said that he was "extremely disappointed at the IBF for forcing the world's best fighter" to renounce his world title.
He reckoned that Golden Boy Promotions was in serious negotiations with Sergiy Derevyanchenko's promoter until the end. The 46-year-old boxing promoter also said that his team offered a substantial amount of money for the fight to push through.
De La Hoya blasted the federation further by saying that their declaration "validates already existing concerns about the credibility of the IBF championship." His camp was not expecting the outcome, considering Canelo was forced to relinquish his belt after he beat Daniel Jacobs, the man who conquered Derevyanchenko last year.
Instead, the Ukranian boxer is expected to fight Gennady Golovkin in October, with the IBF middleweight belt on the line. De La Hoya insisted that the scenario is "what is wrong with boxing," adding that he plans to "aggressively consider" legal action.
Yesterday, Golden Boy Promotions requested approval to allow Alvarez a chance to consolidate the title with WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade. The IBF ruled that they won't let the boxer to request since a notice was already sent on the date on the purse bid.
On May 4, Alvarez picked up the 52nd win of his career against a unanimous-decision victory over Daniel Jacobs. His victory unified three major titles, as he held the WBA, WBC, and IBF belt during that period. He still has the WBA "super" title, after the IBF and the WBC belts were stripped from the 29-year-old champ.
Canelo's only loss came was in 2013, when he was pitted against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a fight for the light-middleweight championship. He succumbed to a 12-round majority decision in front of 16,746 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
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