Oscar De La Hoya is an American former professional boxer who is also a boxing promoter for Golden Boy Promotions. In 2018, he ventured into MMA and fronted the trilogy between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
A six-division world champion, De La Hoya fought as a professional between 1998 to 2008 and is one of the most lucrative fighters of all time having generated around $700million in revenue.
Nicknamed the '"Golden Boy'', De La Hoya formed Golden Boy Promotions in 2002 alongside Richard Schaefer.
After winning gold in the lightweight division at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, De La Hoya immediately turned over and joined the professional circuit. In his 18th fight in 1995, he unified the lightweight division, knocking out Rafael Ruelas to add the IBF title to his WBO belt.
Marquee victories against hero Julio Cesar Chavez and defensive genius Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker followed and by this then, De La Hoya had become a huge PPV star in the sport. After 31 wins, De La Hoya suffered two defeats in his three fights between September 1999 to June 2000.
His first being against Felix Trinidad and his second to "Sugar" Shane Mosley. After his loss to Mosley, De La Hoya was at a crossroads in his career after a fall out with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum. The star successfully suited Arum and subsequently formed his own promotional company.
His decision would prove a game-changer as De La Hoya became the poster boy of boxing whilst also managing himself. He is credited for changing the game with Floyd Mayweather following on by also leaving Arum to form Mayweather Promotions.
He continued to be involved in fights with global reach against the likes of Fernando Vargas and Bernard Hopkins before a record-breaking fight with Mayweather in 2007. In 2008, he fought Manny Pacquiao in the final fight of his career.
De La Hoya was the most profitable boxer in the world before Mayweather and Pacquaio overtook him for revenue generated. De La Hoya has worked with various trainers including Floyd Mayweather Sr., Freddie Roach, Robert Alcazar and Jesus Rivero.
Since retiring, De La Hoya has promoted boxing's Pound for Pound superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and brokered the biggest boxing contract of all time for a fighter with streaming service DAZN for Canelo which was an 11-fight, $365million deal in 2018 although Canelo was released from his deal after just three fights.
De La Hoya also promotes future stars Ryan Garcia, Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaime Munguia and has previously worked with Mayweather, Deontay Wilder, Errol Spence Jr. and Amir Khan.
De La Hoya's career continued to go from strength-to-strength from here onwards. He moved up to lightweight to win the vacant WBO world lightweight title against Jorge Paez in July 1994. Less than a year later he had his first unification fight against the IBF champion Rafael Ruelas.
De La Hoya put in a comprehensive display, knocking down Ruelas twice before the fight was eventually halted in the second round. He then moved up to light-welterweight and welterweight and won lineal world titles in both weight classes against Chavez and Whittaker respectively.
De La Hoya successfully defended his WBC and lineal welterweight titles on seven successive occasions before relinquishing them to Felix Trinidad in September 1999 via majority decision. After getting back to winning ways, De La Hoya suffered the second defeat of his career to "Sugar" Shane.
After a court settlement with Arum, De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions and recovered well from defeat to Mosley by claiming another world title at 154-pounds with victory over Javier Castillejo to add the WBC and lineal titles to his mantel piece.
A highly anticipated unification with Fernando Vargas followed - the pair had history having previously fought each other in the amateur ranks. Billed as 'Bad Blood', the fight took place at the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas strip.
De La Hoya vs Vargas lived up to the hype and was arguably the best night of De La Hoya's career. Both men traded blows throughout the contest, and it looked set to be a close call on the cards until De La Hoya delivered a stunning left hook to end proceedings in the 11th round.
The "Golden Boy" became a six-division world champion with victory over German middleweight Felix Sturm for the WBO title.
De La Hoya lost to the title in his next bout to Hopkins - middleweight's longest-reigning world champion. Despite being ahead of the scorecards, a lethal body shot ended proceedings for De La Hoya, who tasted the fourth defeat of his career.
The most lucrative fight of his career soon followed with Mayweather in 2007. At the time, it was the highest-grossing fight in boxing history with $130million in revenue. While it was a closely fought contest, Mayweather came out on top via split-decision.
Talks of a rematch failed to materialise. De La Hoya's final fight ended in a vicious defeat to Pacquiao. "Pacman" delivered a crushing stoppage defeat in the eighth-round which signalled the end of a 16-year career.
After falling out with Arum, De La Hoya needed a new promoter for his fights. Instead of being represented by someone else, he set up Golden Boy Promotions alongside Schaefer - a former Swiss banker - and together, they soon attracted high-profile fighters to the stable.
The name Golden Boy comes from De La Hoya's nickname given to him by the media from a combination of his popularity, good looks, and impressive resume. His promotional company would promote all his fights post-Arum and Top Rank, including a record-breaking clash with Mayweather Jr.
In the aftermath of fights with Hopkins and Mosley, they were both brought on board to help De La Hoya. He has promoted many of Mayweather's fights, including the much-hyped 'undefeated' showdown against England's Ricky Hatton.
Canelo - boxing's most profitable fighter - was his most recent premium fighter and De La Hoya helped secure the richest deal in boxing history with the Mexican penning an 11-fight, $365million deal.
Since Schaefer left the company, Eric Gomez has had more of a hands-on role with Golden Boy, helping deliver Canelo's fights against Rocky Fielding, Daniel Jacobs, and Sergey Kovalev.
De La Hoya is a unique individual who helped bring boxing to new levels. He is rightly considered as one of the best fighters in recent times - BoxRec placed De La Hoya in the top 10 of their all-time Pound for Pound rankings.
De La Hoya paved the way for other fighters to set-up their own promotional company with the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, Joshua and Mayweather following him.
His fight with Mayweather broke PPV records at the time with an estimated 2.5 million buys. It saw De La Hoya earn double the amount of Mayweather with a reported $52million purse. De La Hoya's defeat to Trinidad in 1999 broke the then-record for a non-heavyweight PPV with 1.4 million buys.
Alongside his ground-breaking deals for Canelo and Garcia on DAZN, De La Hoya has an estimated net worth of $200million.
De La Hoya started to date former Miss USA winner Shanna Moakler and got engaged in 1988. Moakler gave birth to their only child, Atiana Cecilia De La Hoya, in March 1999.
Towards the end of 2000, the couple split after De La Hoya was seen out with another woman at the Latin Grammy Awards. In October 2001, De La Hoya married Puerto Rican entertainer Millie Corretjer.
They have a son and daughter together: Oscar Gabriel De La Hoya and Nina Lauren Ninette De La Hoya. The 47-year-old also has two other sons named Jacob De La Hoya and Devon De La Hoya who were both from previous relationships. Diego De La Hoya, cousin of Oscar, fights under the Golden Boy banner and has a 21-1 (1) record.
De La Hoya had a sensational career in the amateur ranks both at national and world level. He won numerous national titles during his rise to prominence, including the National Golden Gloves bantamweight title in 1989.
His breakout moment came at the Olympic Games in 1992. During the build-up to the Olympics, his mother - Cecilia Gonzalez De La Hoya - died after losing her battle with breast cancer. She was always a big advocate for him competing in the Olympics and she dreamed that one day he could win a gold medal.
De La Hoya used this heartbreak as inspiration, winning the tournament in impressive style. He pulled off a very noteworthy win in the first round against Julio Gonzalez, before winning in the final against German boxer Marco Rudolph.
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