Oscar De La Hoya’s moratorium on criticizing Canelo Alvarez didn’t last long.

In fairness to “The Golden Boy,” Alvarez definitely deserves scrutiny for his lackluster performance against an unwilling William Scull on Saturday night. De La Hoya didn’t absolve the previously unbeaten Cuban for his annoying approach to the biggest opportunity of his career, but Alvarez’s antagonistic former promoter understandably faulted Alvarez for even agreeing to fight the former IBF super middleweight champion, let alone following him around the ring for 12 rounds.

The Mexican icon reunified all of boxing’s 168-pound championships by beating Scull unanimously on the scorecards at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The dreadfully dull bout between Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) and Scull (23-1, 9 KOs) was so devoid of action, though, it established a CompuBox record for the least combined punches thrown during a 12-round fight (445). CompuBox counted only 152 punch attempts by Alvarez, the second fewest thrown by one fighter in a 12-round bout during the company’s 40-year history.

Alvarez won by scores of 119-109, 116-112 and 115-113. The four-weight world champion nonetheless failed to build momentum toward his showdown with Terence Crawford on September 12 at the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.

“Canelo, Jesus, lord. Come on,” De La Hoya said during a video posted to his Instagram account Sunday. “You’re getting paid all this money to fight against a runner, who we all knew was gonna run. The Cuban style, you chose him, and now you say you hate fighting runners. Well, then, don’t fight runners. We all know who we wanna see you in against. That’s [David] Benavidez. Go up against Benavidez. Fight Benavidez. He won’t run. What’s wrong with that? It’s a good fight. But it’s sad. It really is.”

Alvarez, 34, has avoided Benavidez in pursuit of huge purses for less challenging fights against John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga and Scull over the past two years. Crawford is commonly considered one of the top three fighters, pound-for-pound, in boxing, yet he will move up two divisions – from junior middleweight to super middleweight – to challenge Alvarez for his Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound crowns in four months.

De La Hoya, like most fight fans, would prefer to see Alvarez battle Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs). The retired six-division champion appreciates the 37-year-old Crawford’s greatness just the same and is intrigued by the thought of someone so accomplished and skilled squaring off against Alvarez.

“But hey, we got Crawford-Canelo,” De La Hoya said. “I’m looking forward to it, even though they’re both almost 40. I’m looking forward to it because it’s a good matchup. But just show up and fight. Please! Show up and fight.”

Omaha’s Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), a four-division champ who will end a 13-month layoff when he faces Alvarez, is ranked No. 3 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list and is its No. 1 contender in the junior middleweight division. The Ring’s 154-pound championship is vacant.

Guadalajara’s Alvarez is ranked No. 7 pound-for-pound by The Ring.