As one of the biggest fights of his career approaches, there is still a lot of tension between Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez and his longtime promoter, Golden Boy Promotions.

On Saturday night, Canelo will go for his fourth divisional belt when he moves up by two full weight classes to challenge WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The tension between Canelo and Golden Boy first became public a few months ago, when the popular fighter blamed his promoter for the IBF’s decision to strip him of his middleweight title.

Canelo claimed that he was never made aware of the IBF’s final deadline to reach an agreement for a mandatory defense against Sergey Derevyanchenko.

In later interviews, Canelo would express direct anger at Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya – criticizing the head of the company for making public promises of a 2020 trilogy fight with Gennady Golovkin.

In talking to Mike Coppinger of The Athletic, Canelo explains that his relationship with De La Hoya has been slowly deteriorating over the last two years.

“You can see there’s no loyalty in him,” Canelo said.

“He changed trainers during his career. He changed managers in his career. So there’s no loyalty. That’s the way he is. We see it now.”

Canelo appears to have also been angered by De La Hoya posting a now-deleted comment on the Instagram feed of Ryan Garcia – the lightweight promoted by Golden Boy – but also trained by Canelo’s head trainer and co-manager, Eddy Reynoso.

De La Hoya is said to have wrote: “Bro, when you duck under, always keep your eye on your opponent. You tell your trainer that.”

Canelo and his handlers saw those comments as a swipe at Reynoso and his team.

“The only thing I have to say, very ungrateful,” Canelo said.

“He has to remember that his first world champ in the Golden Boy stable was Oscar Larios [the longtime assistant trainer to Reynoso].

“I’m a very loyal person and we are a very loyal team. We’re still together. But you can see there’s no loyalty in Oscar.”

What got lost in the shuffle last week, is when Canelo Promotions, headed by Reynoso, signed Julio Cesar Martinez to rival promoter Eddie Hearn instead of Golden Boy.

“It is a pleasure to start this alliance with the best promoter in boxing,” said Eddy Reynoso, Sport and Talent director at Canelo Promotions. “We will work very hard and with great enthusiasm to launch Mexican talents to the big boxing leagues!”

Content courtesy of Mike Coppinger & The Athletic