LAS VEGAS – Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had a good idea something like this was coming, that his former mentor and promoter Oscar De La Hoya was going to unleash a public response to all the legal wrangling and disdain that has existed behind closed doors.

Wednesday afternoon at the final news conference before Alvarez’s Saturday night defense of his undisputed super middleweight title versus De La Hoya-promoted Jaime Munguia, the cork popped.

Closing a scripted, thought-out statement, De La Hoya said from the dais, “The company [Alvarez] fought under for decades has always had one name, and it’s mine. So put some f****** respect on it.”

The fighter ultimately arose from his seat and stepped toward De La Hoya before mutual parties intervened.

For a bout that perhaps needed an extra burst of promotion beyond its standing as a Cinco de Mayo card pitting two Mexicans, the visceral exchange accomplished it.

“Not only do I not have a problem with any of this stuff, I like it,” ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters” analyst and former 140-pound world titleholder Chris Algieri said on Wednesday’s episode. “I like that aggression.”

Alvarez and De La Hoya feuded in the months before their 2020 split over money and the fighter’s career direction, and the toxicity has fumed since as Alvarez proceeded to collect the highest riches in prizefighting and De La Hoya has struggled to rebuild his roster.

The promoter’s investment has borne fruit of late, with Ryan Garcia defeating previously unbeaten Devin Haney two weeks ago and former 140-pound champion Jose Ramirez and unbeaten junior middleweight Vergil Ortiz Jr. sweeping their doubleheader of bouts in Fresno, California, last week.

“Oscar has a right to say that, and Canelo has a right to respond,” “Deep Waters” analyst Paulie Malignaggi said. “If anybody gets distracted from the ultimate goal [because of it], then that’s on them. You’re a professional. You’re not supposed to get distracted.”

While Alvarez insisted he can separate that on-stage friction from disrupting him in the ring, De La Hoya admitted that “mind games,” intended to sabotage Alvarez’s focus, were in play.

“I don’t have a problem with Oscar getting in his two cents,” Malignaggi said. “He’s been waiting for several years. He finally has an opponent facing Canelo, and Canelo’s been waiting, too. He’s been saying a lot of things for years.”

On stage, Alvarez alleged that De La Hoya “tried to steal” money from him and Gennady Golovkin during one of their first two fights. De La Hoya later called that allegation “defamation,” and said he may do something about it.

De La Hoya said he felt confident that Alvarez wouldn’t throw a punch at him with Saturday’s fight looming, but Alvarez said he was considering doing so if De La Hoya got too close at the faceoff photo-op.

“Oscar can throw a left hook, but maybe he doesn’t want to … he was between a rock and a hard place, so you got what you got,” Malignaggi said.

“It’s good for the promotion. But it’s more than promotion. A lot of it is personal. And Munguia’s sitting there thinking, ‘Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.’”