Oscar De La Hoya claims to have unearthed boxing’s next Mexican-American superstar, who he believes has one key advantage over Ryan Garcia.
During his own fighting career, De La Hoya was undoubtedly the most popular boxer of Hispanic descent, consistently generating monstrous pay-per-view and ticket sales.
And now, as a promoter, the Golden Boy boss is confident that his rising star will snatch the mantle from Canelo Alvarez and endear himself to a mammoth Mexican-American audience.
As things stand, the two flagship names of such heritage appear to be Garcia and David Benavidez, while Canelo remains the ultimate face of Mexican boxing.
Crucially, though, Alvarez did not fight on this year’s Cinco de Mayo weekend, which was instead occupied by Benavidez’s sixth-round stoppage of Gilberto Ramirez.
Garcia, meanwhile, will face Conor Benn on September 12, with Canelo’s clash against WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli having been pushed back from Mexican Independence Day weekend to October 31.
But while Garcia could, in theory, become boxing’s leading Mexican-American star, De La Hoya has suggested that the WBC welterweight champion’s lack of Spanish represents a slight disadvantage.
Instead, the Hall of Famer has told Ariel Helwani that 17-year-old prospect Dylan Capetillo has all the ingredients to be ‘the one’.
“[Garcia can be the next Mexican-American star] if he wants to. It’s all about performances inside the ring; it’s all about winning world titles; it’s all about who you fight.
“And you obviously have to make the effort and speak [Spanish] – you have to care. Can he be ‘the one’? Absolutely. But I truly feel ‘the one’ is [Capetillo].”
Capetillo has won both of his fights to date, one of them coming by knockout, and he will have his third outing when he features on the undercard of William Zepeda vs Lamont Roach this weekend.
