Oscar De La Hoya doubles down on claim he could beat Canelo Alvarez

Oscar De La Hoya has once against claimed that he believes he could beat Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez during his boxing comeback.

The former world champion will return to the ring on September 11 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to face former UFC heavyweight Vitor Belfort, and wants to make a run for gold at age 48.

And De la Hoya has said that the standard of opponents he faced in his prime were higher than Canelo is currently, despite the Mexican star's current position as one of the pound-for-pound top fighters in the sport.

“I mean look, in the scope of things it’s like ‘okay, maybe it can’ but it’s like ‘why not?’ He’s the best out there, I’ve fought the best," De La Hoya told Fight Hub TV at the event.

"I’ve actually fought way better than that so it’s like ‘yeah, he’s the best now, today, but yesterday the best was a lot better,’ and I’ve fought everybody.

"So the fact that something can lead up to that, with me and Canelo, why not? And if people want to see me knocked out then tune in. If you think I can beat him, tune in.

"I’ve never been in a boring fight, I never dodged anybody, I've never been in there and only thrown three punches a round.

"If you want to see boring or you want to see exciting, you choose.”

De La Hoya's return will come under the Triller Fight Club banner, and will see him take on the much bigger Belfort in one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year.

And he believes that he will take more fights than just the one, assuming he can get past Belfort, who is 1-0, but hasn't boxed since 2006.

“It’s love for the sport, basically," he said when asked why he was returning now, 13 years after losing his final fight to Manny Pacquiao.

"I love boxing, I love what I did and I love what I’m doing now and more importantly I’m doing it for myself, that’s the whole motivation for myself.

"It’s a different psyche, it’s different, and I don’t think anybody will understand it.

"There might be one fighter out there that maybe can understand it and his name is Mike Tyson, I’m just believing that I need to do this for myself.

“I want to prove that everything I accomplished, everything I’ve done inside the ring whether it’s win, whether it’s lose, whether it’s facing every single type of competition out there that’s the toughest, whether it’s winning a gold medal, 10 world titles, whatever it is I want to prove to myself that I can do it for myself and that I’m not doing it for anybody else but myself.

"So it’s a whole different mentality.”

Canelo Alvarez is currently in talks to fight Caleb Plant in an effort to become undisputed champion at super-middleweight having already beaten Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders for their belts.

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