Canelo, De La Hoya nearly come to blows during heated presser

Warning: Story and videos contain coarse language.

Things got heated at the final press conference for Saturday's super middleweight title fight between Canelo Álvarez and Jaime Munguia - but only one of the two fighters was involved in Wednesday's dust-up.

Álvarez and his former promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, who now represents Munguia, continued their longtime feud when they nearly came to blows on the podium in Las Vegas. After taking exception to De La Hoya's opening remarks, Álvarez had to be held back from taking a swing on stage.

"If he came closer, I'd fuck him (up)," Álvarez told reporters after the press conference, according to Arash Markazi of The Sporting Tribune.

After things calmed down on the dais, the undisputed champion clarified that he called De La Hoya "a fucking asshole" in Spanish before getting up to confront him.

De La Hoya and Álvarez have been feuding for years. Their partnership ended in 2020, shortly after Álvarez sued De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions for breach of contract regarding his deal with DAZN.

Álvarez expanded on his feelings during a scrum with reporters, claiming that De La Hoya has tried to steal money from him and other fighters.

"He tried to steal money from his fighters. ... I have proof," Álvarez said, per Markazi. "He tried to steal money from me, from (Gennady) Golovkin, everything. But you know, he's a fucking asshole. He don't care about his fighters because he tries to bring all the attention for him. He don't care about Jaime Munguia, his best fight ... he don't care anything about this fighter. He just care about him."

De La Hoya felt he didn't say anything out of line at the press conference and rejected Álvarez's claims of impropriety.

"All I do is work for the fighter. All I do is make sure the fighter makes the most money," De La Hoya told DAZN. "Him saying that I steal from a fighter? That's defamation. I don't like that."

"The facts are the facts," he added later, according to Michael Benson of TalkSport.com. "All I know is that he failed drug tests (in 2018). It's defamation (to say I stole money). It's very serious ... And do you know what? I have something coming for him."

De La Hoya said he plans to sue Álvarez for defamation over the comments.

"Imagine the damage that it can do to my reputation," the 51-year-old said, according to ESPN Ringside. "Imagine the damage it can do to my business to fighters (who) are going to believe that."

De La Hoya sent Álvarez a letter demanding he retract the allegations that De La Hoya stole money from fighters, ESPN's Mike Coppinger reports.

The Álvarez-Munguia card at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena gets started Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.