Oscar
De La Hoya (born February 4, 1973) is a Mexican American former
professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Golden Boy", De La Hoya won a gold
medal at the 1992 Olympics shortly after graduating from James A.
Garfield High School.
He was born in East Los Angeles, California,
and comes from a boxing family. His grandfather Vicente, father Joel
Sr. and brother Joel Jr. were all boxers. De La Hoya was The Ring
magazine's "Fighter of the Year" in 1995, and their top-rated pound
for pound fighter in the world in 1997 and 1998. De La Hoya was The
Ring magazines's "Fighter of the Year" in 1995, and their top-rated
pound for pound fighter in the world in 1997 and 1998. De La Hoya
officially announced his retirement in 2009, after a professional
career spanning sixteen years.
As a professional, De La Hoya
defeated 17 world champions and won ten world titles in six different
weight classes. He has also generated approximately $700 million in
pay-per-view income making him the top pay-per-view earner before
being surpassed by Floyd Mayweather, Jr.. In 2002, he founded Golden
Boy Promotions, a combat sport promotional firm. He is the first american
of Mexican descent to own a national boxing promotional firm and one
of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilites while still
active.
Amateur career
De La Hoya's amateur career included 234
wins, 163 by knockout, and six losses. Of those six losses, two came
at the hands of Shane Mosley. In 1989, he won the National Golden
Gloves title in the bantamweight division. In 1990, at the age of
17, he won the U.S. National Championship at featherweight and was
the youngest U.S. boxer at that year's Goodwill Games, winning a gold
medal. The joy of victory was tempered by the news that his mother,
Cecilia, was terminally ill with breast cancer. She died in October
1990, expressing the hope that her son would one day become an Olympic
gold medalist.
With the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona approaching,
De La Hoya turned his mother's dream into a strong focus for his training.
After an upset victory in the first round over the Mexican boxer Julio
Gonzalez, De La Hoya defeated German boxer Marco Rudolph to win gold.
The U.S. media publicized his quest to fulfill him mother's dying
wish and dubbed him with the nickname "The Golden Boy", which has
remained with him throughout his career.
Super-featherweight
On
November 23, 1992 De La Hoya made his professional debut by scoring
a first round TKO victory. In his twelfth professional fight, he won
his first world title at age 20, stopping Jimy Bredahl (16-0) in the
tenth round to win the WBO Super Featherweight title. He defended
the title once, stopping Giorgio Campanella (20-0) in three rounds.
Lightweight
On
July 29, 1994, he knocked out Jorge Paez (53-6-4) in the second round
to win the vacant WBO Lightweight title. In his first title defense,
he defeated John-John Molina (36-3), who had recently vacated his
IBF Super Featherweight title, by unanimous decision.
De La Hoya
vs Ruelas unification
On May 6, 1995, De La Hoya defeated IBF lightweight
champion Rafael Ruelas (43-1-0) in a unification bout. De La Hoya
knocked Ruelas down twice before the fight was stopped in the second
round. The IBF then ordered De La Hoya to defend against Miguel Julio.
He relinquished the IBF title and defended the WBO title against
undefeted Genaro Hernandez (32-0-1), who relinquished the WBA super
featherweight title to fight De La Hoya. Hernandez quit after six
rounds because of a broken nose. In his sixth and final defense of
the WBO lightweight title, he knocked out Jesse James Leija (30-1-2)
in three rounds.