ONE Championship: Eddie Alvarez says Oscar De La Hoya boxing crossover is ‘dead issue’ after Triller Fight Club
- ‘The whole [Triller] event put me off. It just looked like boxing 101 and that’s what boxing has come to,’ Alvarez says
- ‘I have pride in what I do. I feel it’s gonna take a lot to sell my skin in boxing, to be outmatched and go in there’
Eddie Alvarez laid into this month’s Triller Fight Club card as he seemingly shut the door on a potential boxing crossover bout with the legendary Oscar De La Hoya.
The former UFC and Bellator champ – who returns to the MMA cage with Asian promotion ONE Championship against Ok Rae-yoon on Thursday morning in Singapore – had claimed to be in talks with De La Hoya’s camp to fight the 48-year-old retired American boxer, who held world titles in six different weight divisions.
“I would say it’s a dead issue for right now,” Alvarez told media on Tuesday’s virtual conference.
“The whole boxing-MMA thing, when I watched it with Ben Askren, what I watched was a bunch of MMA fighters in the realm of boxing, who had the heart and courage, and the humility, to put themselves in a form and skill they’re not pros in, and put it out there.
“But we’re yet to see a boxer come out in that MMA realm. It’s kinda bothering me and put me off. I’d like to see the courage on the boxing side for a guy to step into the MMA realm.