De La Hoya's decorated boxing career included world titles in the junior lightweight, lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight divisions. He won the first 31 professional matches of his career and currently sports a mark lifetime.
The Golden Boy also won a gold medal in the lightweight division at the Summer Olympics. Boxing is what gave me everything I have today, and I just miss it. Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion in boxing history. He will be fighting in his first professional bout in 10 years.
At age 15, De La Hoya won the national Junior Olympic pound title; he took home the pound title the next year.
In , he won the national Golden Gloves title in the pound division and was the youngest U. The joy of victory was tempered by the news that his mother was terminally ill with cancer; she died in October , expressing the hope that her son would one day win Olympic gold.
One year later, with a victory in the U. With the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, fast approaching, De La Hoya turned his mother's dream into a strong focus for his training. De La Hoya turned professional after the Olympics, winning his first pro fight in a first-round knockout of Lamar Williams in Inglewood, California, on November 23, He compiled an extremely successful record during his first year as a pro, and on March 5, , won his first professional title, the junior lightweight championship of the World Boxing Organization WBO , with a technical knockout TKO of Danish fighter Jimmi Bredahl in the tenth round of the fight.
Despite De La Hoya's status as the 'Golden Boy' of boxing, some critics thought he had simply not faced enough quality opponents. De La Hoya had sparred with Chavez as an amateur and been knocked down, but this time the results were different.
De La Hoya pummeled crowd favorite Chavez with blows, opening a cut above the champion's eye before officials stopped the bout in the fourth round and declared victory for De La Hoya. In January , De La Hoya successfully defended his junior welterweight title. Moving up to the pound weight class, he won the WBC welterweight title in Las Vegas in April of that year, beating the reigning champion and Olympic gold medalist Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whittaker, a pro champion in four different weight classes.
With that victory, De La Hoya confirmed his reputation as the best fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world. De La Hoya's reign as welterweight champion would continue until September 18, , when he faced the hard-hitting Felix Trinidad in one of the most anticipated fights of the decade. As a record-breaking number of fans watched the fight broadcast on pay-per-view television, Trinidad handed De La Hoya his fist loss ever in a round unanimous decision for the WBC welterweight title.
His good looks and undeniable talent made De La Hoya a hit with fans and the media from the beginning of his career. Outside the ring, he became the best-known boxer in America, earning respect from many for his charity and community service efforts including a nonprofit foundation and a youth boxing center in his old East Los Angeles neighborhood. De La Hoya, who has battled drug and alcohol addiction in the past , said he started to get back into shape a couple of months ago, and as he began to feel better and better, the old itch came back.
So that's a huge advantage for me because I know what it takes to train hard, I know how to train smart. I know how to fight smart in the ring. I will fight for the glory, and these guys only fight for the money.
And guess what? The glory will always win. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. De La Hoya, 47, says he's ending ring retirement. The 'most avoided' fighter? David Benavidez just wants a big fight. Shields to fight Kozin under new Sky Sports deal.
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