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Oscar De La Hoya Boxing
Autograph
A Color 8x10 Autograph from the Golden boy
himself multi world champion and boxing promoter - Oscar
De La Hoya.
De La Hoya
£95.00
Boxing's "Golden Boy" -- a nickname
given to him after he was the only U.S. boxer to take home
a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics -- doesn't shy away from
opponents or photo opportunities.
Oscar De La Hoya has won titles in six weight classes.
He has said boxing won't be the same after he retires. De
La Hoya is one of the sport's most popular figures, and
his good looks only add to his standing with his legions
of female fans.
De La Hoya has won titles in six weight classes. With championships
as a junior lightweight, lightweight, super lightweight,
welterweight, super welterweight and middleweight, De La
Hoya's goal is to win titles in seven divisions.
The winner of more than $200 million in purses through September
2004, his hand speed and quickness are his two major assets.
As a pro, his record is 37-4 with 29 knockouts. "My
power punch is my left," De La Hoya said. "My
right hand does not really serve me in a fight. I may use
it to measure, but I'm not even thinking about my right
hand. It's no secret, everybody knows."
Victories over Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996 and Pernell Whitaker
in 1997 led many to consider the 5-foot-11 De La Hoya as
the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Since losing
the WBC welterweight title to Shane Mosley on June 17, 2000,
De La Hoya rebounded to win three fights before being beaten
again by Mosley. Victories over Javier Castillejo (WBC title)
in June 2001 and Fernando Vargas (WBA) in September 2002
gave him super welterweight championships.
"Do I see myself as a Leonard or a Hearns? No,"
De La Hoya said. "I feel I lost a lot of time in the
boxing world because of my negativity."
He was born Feb. 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, where his
parents, Joel and Cecilia, settled after leaving Mexico.
Joel was a professional boxer in Mexico and the U.S., but
quit to support his family, which included an older son,
Joel Jr. Oscar's father learned boxing from his father,
Vincente, an amateur boxer in Mexico in the 1940s.
Joel Sr. worked as a shipping /receiving clerk for a heating
and cooling company and Cecilia worked as a seamstress and
occasional singer, but money was scarce.
After learning that his son was running from neighborhood
bullies when he wasn't getting pummeled, Joel pushed Oscar
to the gym. He started boxing at six. "I was a little
kid who used to fight a lot on the street -- and get beat
up," De La Hoya said. "But I liked it [boxing].
So my dad took me to the gym."
Growing up in the ghetto, De La Hoya had to learn survival
skills. At 11, he was riding in the back seat of a car when
the fragments of buckshot and glass embedded themselves
in the back of his head. Two years later he was stabbed
while beating up a grown man who had called him a punk.
The ring proved to be a haven. In 1988, De La Hoya won the
National Junior Olympic 119-pound championship and followed
up with the 125-pound title the next year.
In 1990, De La Hoya, at 17, went to Seattle as the youngest
boxer at the Goodwill Games and won the gold medal in his
weight class. His mother was battling breast cancer at the
time. That October, she died at 38. De La Hoya vowed to
honor her memory by winning an Olympic gold medal in Barcelona
and presenting it at her grave.
At the 1992 Summer Games, De La Hoya knocked out his first
three opponents in the first round before escaping with
a one-point victory in the semifinals. That got him a rematch
with Marco Rudolph, who defeated him at the 1991 World Championships,
for the gold medal. This time he knocked out Rudolph in
the third round.
"The most important thing I've done in my life was
winning the Olympic gold medal for my mother," De La
Hoya said.
At the victory ceremony, De La Hoya carried the U.S. flag
in one hand and the Mexican flag in the other, honoring
his mother.
De La Hoya hopes to have target practice on Vargas, like
he did on Arturo Gatti.
This was his last fight as an amateur; he finished with
a 223-5 record that included 153 knockouts. With Joel Sr.
calling the shots, De La Hoya accepted an unprecedented
$1 million management deal with untried New Yorkers Steve
Nelson and Robert Mittleman. After his first pro fight,
Bob Arum signed on as De La Hoya's promoter.
De La Hoya scored first-round knockouts in his first two
fights. It wasn't until his 11th pro bout -- against Mexican
lightweight Narciso Valenzuela in October 1993 -- that De
La Hoya got knocked down. He recovered in that first round
and knocked out Valenzuela before the round ended.
His first title came in 1994, when he knocked out Jimmi
Bredahl for the WBO junior lightweight belt. Later that
year he KOed Jorge Paez for the WBO lightweight title.
In 1995, having won his first 17 pro fights, De La Hoya
gained the IBF lightweight title by knocking out Rafael
Ruelas in the second round. A year later, he knocked out
Chavez in the fourth round to win the WBC super-lightweight
title. De La Hoya then beat Pernell Whitaker in a 12-round
decision in April 1997 to claim the WBC welterweight championship.
He followed that victory with seven straight wins to make
his record 31-0 when he met Felix Trinidad in September
1999. The fight was among the most anticipated of the decade.
The 1.25 million pay-per-view buys and $64 million gross
made it the biggest non-heavyweight fight in history. De
La Hoya was stunned when the judges awarded Trinidad the
12-round decision.
"I thought I won the fight easily," he said. "Felix
never hurt me, but I know there were several times I hurt
him with combinations."
De La Hoya was later awarded the WBC welterweight belt he
lost after Trinidad relinquished the title by moving up
to 154 pounds. But De La Hoya didn't keep the belt long,
losing it to Mosley in a 12-round decision in June 2000.
After the defeat, De La Hoya did some soul searching. He
took nine months off to pursue his dream of becoming a singer.
De La Hoya had begun singing Spanish ballads as a child
alongside his mother, who occasionally sang professionally
in Mexico. In 2001, his first album, "Oscar De La Hoya,"
was nominated for a Grammy award (it didn't win).
Earlier that year, De La Hoya had a messy split with Arum.
He thought the promoter was getting too much money; Arum
didn't like De La Hoya's attitude and suggested he retire
because he lacked a commitment to boxing. "Oscar has
not learned how to deal with defeat, and he looks for a
scapegoat, and this time the arrow fell on me," Arum
said.
In March, De La Hoya returned to the ring and knocked out
Arturo Gatti in the fifth round. Three months later, he
gained a 12-round decision over Castillejo.
In October 2001, De La Hoya, the playboy, finally decided
to settle down. He had a secret wedding to Latin pop star
Millie Corretjer of Puerto Rico.
After reconciling with Arum in November 2001, De La Hoya's
next fight was against Vargas, also a Mexican-American from
Los Angeles. The Golden Boy settled their neighborhood feud
by registering an 11th-round TKO over the WBA's 154-pound
champion.
Before De La Hoya retires, he's looking for atonement. "I
feel that a lot of athletes who stand out during their careers
are sometimes appreciated after their careers," De
La Hoya said. "Hopefully, I can be appreciated after
I get my revenge for the two losses that I have."
Make it three now. In September 2003, he tried to gain revenge
against Mosley and was winning their rematch after eight
rounds. But he lost the last four rounds on all three scorecards
and dropped a close but unanimous decision as he had his
WBC and WBA titles taken from him.
A pudgy-looking De La Hoya won his sixth title in June 2004
when, in his middleweight debut, he captured the WBO championship
in that division with a questionable unanimous 12-round
decision over Felix Sturm of Germany.
But three months later, De La Hoya lost for the second time
in three fights. At 31, he thought he could trade punches
with a bigger and stronger fighter. Instead, he was knocked
out for the first time in his career when he tried to take
Bernard Hopkins' middleweight titles. The fight ended in
the ninth round with De La Hoya, a 2-1 underdog, writhing
in pain on the canvas from Hopkins' perfectly placed body
shot.
