Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is standing firm on his belief that rival promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom made a big mistake by finalizing the encounter between Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol.

Canelo, the undisputed super middleweight champion, moved up to light heavyweight to challenge Bivol for the WBA title last month in Las Vegas.

Bivol outboxed Canelo over twelve rounds to secure a dominant unanimous decision victory.

De La Hoya's company had promoted Canelo for over a decade. The Mexican superstar broke away from Golden Boy in 2020.

The 'Golden Boy' saw no reason for Canelo to face a fighter like Bivol, because he believes the talented Russian posed too much risk with very little reward at this stage of Canelo's career.

“It was a lose-lose situation for everyone. Nobody knew Bivol whatsoever. I would’ve promoted Bivol to [make him] a bigger name because nobody knew who he was before he fought Canelo. He was irrelevant, he was nobody," De La Hoya told The MMA Hour.

“Canelo has a promoter [Hearn] now that obviously doesn’t come from a boxing world. He doesn’t really know the fight game. He got Canelo beat, it was the wrong style. Las Vegas had no buzz whatsoever. Canelo is the superstar of the game right now. Eddie Hearn didn’t do no justice to Canelo when he faced him against Bivol.

"[Hearn is] doing a lot of fights that mean nothing, especially here in the US. He might be a good promoter in the UK and he’s building European fighters but it means nothing here in the US.”

Canelo will return to the ring on September 17, when he faces rival Gennadiy Golovkin in a trilogy fight.