Before Shakur Stevenson’s victory in November over Edwin de los Santos, also at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, BoxingScene spoke to a representative of Top Rank, who recognized the extent to which they were having to vie for attention with that weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix. 

Six months on, perhaps helped by the occasion of Cinco de Mayo weekend, marketing material promoting the undisputed super-middleweight title fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Jaime Munguia is near-impossible to avoid. At Friday’s ceremonial weigh-in for the Premier Boxing Champions promotion, in the sunshine outside of the T-Mobile Arena, as well as filling the designated areas, Mexican fight fans had gathered in the car park of the New York, New York casino to watch from higher ground.

When watching “The Heartbreaker” Brandon Figueroa weigh-in and then lift in each hand drinks in which he has a commercial interest, it was tempting – while considering his far-from-professional-fighter’s appearance and the fact that he has a role in the Amazon Prime Video film Find Me – to consider what is increasingly referred to as his crossover appeal.

When the equally well-groomed Alvarez, who has also appeared on the silver screen, arrived shortly afterwards wearing sunglasses and a Dolce & Gabbana-branded tracksuit, he oozed a superstar’s qualities to such an extent that an almost immediate reminder was provided of those rare, often indefinable, traits only the most revered of athletes possess.

Oscar De La Hoya once – and in many ways continues to – possess so many of those qualities. So, too, does his leading fighter Ryan Garcia. That De La Hoya arrived on Friday wearing a t-shirt that read “Eat More Meat” was interpreted as an insult aimed at Alvarez – with whom he so dramatically clashed at Wednesday’s final press conference – given Alvarez had previously blamed his two positive tests for the banned substance clenbuterol on eating contaminated meat. Before news had broken of Garcia testing positive for ostarine his perceived insult may have carried more authority (De La Hoya later learned Shane Mosley had used performance-enhancing drugs before their fight in 2003; he also, unlike Garcia ahead of the fight with Devin Haney, made weight when it was to his detriment, such as against Manny Pacquiao in 2008). 

Given that he fulfilled his media obligations early on Friday morning when there were far fewer media professionals present – presumably in an attempt to avoid having to answer inconvenient questions – the t-shirt he wore on Friday afternoon made him appear tone-deaf.