THE sting from Mayweather-Pacquiao is still there, which makes anyone who spent the money to watch that overhyped snoozer think twice about wasting their cash on boxing again.

Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez aren’t to blame, but it does force them to have to work harder to sell their own fight.

They get in the ring Saturday night for what is expected to be the biggest pay-per-view fight since 4.4 million households bought into the hype in May for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

While the fight is an attractive one for boxing fans, it won’t match the pay-per-view record set six months ago.

But Oscar De La Hoya likes what it brings to the sport, even if it struggles at the box office.

“We’re going back to the roots of boxing where if you fight the best everything follows that. And this is a perfect example of the best fighting the best.”

Promoters are hopeful a big Hispanic audience will produce some 1.5 million buys but that seems wildly optimistic in the wake of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.

“The problem is that maybe 2.3 million of the 4.4 million buys for Mayweather and Pacquiao were new homes and they won’t pay for a fight again because it was a dud,” De La Hoya said. “Now it’s our job to bring them back.”

De La Hoya believes Alvarez is the next big thing in boxing, ready to take over the pay-per-view dates in May and September that Mayweather dominated in recent years. Alvarez is already a consistent pay-per-view draw, with his only loss coming in a fight with Mayweather that he proved too inexperienced to win.

“If Canelo looks sensational against Cotto then we have the next superstar,” De La Hoya said. “He’s special and I can’t say that about too many fighters. He’s willing to learn and he wants to be great.”