Oscar De La Hoya has threatened to sue former fighter Canelo Alvarez before insulting the Mexican superstar to his face at the weigh-in.
The Golden Boy Chairman revealed a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter sent to Canelo warning the undisputed super middleweight champion not to accuse him of ‘stealing money from fighters’ before antagonizing the situation further with a t-shirt at T-Mobile Arena.
De La Hoya walked on stage to back Jaime Munguia during the scaling, which World Boxing News attended, wearing an ‘eat more meat’ t-shirt. The former boxing champion was clearly pointing to Canelo’s previous issue with a failed drug test and Mexican meat.
Canelo weighed in 166.8 pounds to Munguia’s 167.4.
Before the shirt, De La Hoya sent the letter which contained the following to Canelo’s lawyer: “As you know, at yesterday’s press conference, your client, Canelo Alvarez, falsely accused my client, Oscar De La Hoya, of stealing from boxers. He said this outrageous lie not once but several times-both in English and Spanish-and it has now been republished to millions around the world.
“You surely understand the legal implications of such blatantly false allegations. It’s defamatory per se to accuse someone of a crime. Cal. Civ. Code §46(1). It’s also defamatory per se to make false statements specifically designed to injure someone’s business. Cal. Civ. Code §46(3). Canelo did both of those things yesterday. He falsely accused Oscar of a crime with the specific intention of supposedly warning other boxers not to do business with Oscar or Golden Boy. Clearly, Canelo intentionally defamed Oscar and Golden Boy. Canelo’s statements were also made with actual malice. Obviously, Canelo harbors great animosity and ill-will towards Oscar (repeatedly referring to him as a “f***ing a**hole” and even stooping to use of a derogatory slur regarding gay people to try and insult Oscar.
“But Canelo also knows full well that neither Oscar nor Golden Boy ever stole anything from him or anyone else. In fact, Golden Boy has paid Canelo every penny he was entitled to receive from his fights with Golden Boy, and then some. And Canelo knows it. Indeed, Canelo knows that it was Oscar and Golden Boy who established Canelo’s current market value with the groundbreaking deals they negotiated for him. Although Canelo may be disappointed that his career has plateaued since he left Golden Boy, that disappointment does not justify making such outrageous defamatory statements.
“Accordingly, we hereby demand that Canelo cease and desist from making any further false and preposterous allegations against Oscar and Golden Boy. We also demand that Canelo immediately retract his defamatory allegations that Oscar stole from boxers.
“Oscar and Golden Boy reserve all rights to sue Canelo for the damages caused by these defamatory accusations, including punitive damages designed to ensure Canelo learns his lesson.”
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
