When Canelo Alvarez faces Miguel Cotto on Saturday night (Sunday in Australia), Oscar De La Hoya hopes the marquee match-up convinces fight fans to return to supporting the sport as the former boxer-turned-promoter claimed that boxing has turned them off after being disappointed with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Manny Pacquiao bout last May.

Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 knockouts) from Mexico and Cotto (40-4-0, 33 knockouts) from Puerto Rico will be battling for the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) world middleweight crown at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“We’re going back to the roots of boxing where if you fight the best everything follows that. And this is a perfect example of the best fighting the best,” De La Hoya told boxingscene.com.

“The problem is that maybe 2.3 million of the 4.4 million buys for Mayweather and Pacquiao were new homes and they won’t pay for a fight again because it was a dud. Now it’s our job to bring them back.”

The Mayweather-Pacquiao bout broke multiple boxing records including pay-per-view (PPV) sales and total buys plus gate attendance sales, among others. While considered a huge bout, the Canelo-Cotto fight is not expected to match or come near the figures for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.

In previous interviews, De La Hoya stated that he’s disappointed with how the Mayweather-Pacquiao turned out and specifically called out the undefeated American, who recently retired from the sport last September, for his unentertaining and boring fight style. De La Hoya even penned an open letter addressed to Mayweather Jr. and stated that boxing is better with the American's retirement.

De La Hoya also described Alvarez as a “special” fighter and believes that if the Mexican can pull off a “sensational” performance and win against Cotto, Alvarez will become the next superstar of the sport.

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