Oscar De La Hoya

Amateur career

De La Hoya won the national Junior Olympics 119-pound title at age 15. After a loss to Leon Hernandez, he won the 125-pound title the following year. His amateur career included 234 wins, 163 by knockout, with two losses to Shane Mosley. In 1989, he won the National Golden Gloves title in the bantamweight division.

At age 17 in 1990, he won the U.S. National Championship at featherweight and a gold medal at the Goodwill Games. His mother, Cecilia Gonzales De La Hoya, died of breast cancer in October 1990, having expressed hope that her son would become an Olympic gold medalist. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, after an upset victory over Cuban boxer Julio Gonzalez, he defeated German boxer Marco Rudolph to win the gold medal. Rudolph had been the only fighter to defeat him in the years leading up to the fight.

The U.S. media nicknamed him "The Golden Boy" for fulfilling his mother's dying wish. In 2000, the Cecilia Gonzalez De La Hoya Cancer Center opened at White Memorial Medical Center with a $350,000 donation from De La Hoya.

Professional career

De La Hoya made his professional debut on November 23, 1992, with a first-round KO of Lamar Williams. In his twelfth professional fight, he won the WBO junior lightweight title by stopping Jimmy Bredahl. He later won the vacant WBO Lightweight title by knocking out Jorge Páez in July 1994. In May 1995, he defeated IBF lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas in a unification bout.

He relinquished the IBF title and defended the WBO title against Genaro Hernández, who quit after six rounds due to a broken nose. On June 7, 1996, he fought Julio César Chávez for the lineal and WBC light welterweight championship, winning by fourth-round TKO due to cuts above Chavez's eye.

Chavez later stated that De La Hoya did not defeat him since the fight was stopped. De La Hoya successfully defended his titles with a unanimous decision against undefeated Miguel Ángel González. He announced his retirement as a fighter in 2009 after a 16-year professional career.

Personal life

De La Hoya began dating actress and Miss USA 1995 titleholder Shanna Moakler in October 1997. They became engaged in October 1998, and she gave birth to their daughter the following year. The relationship ended in September 2000 after Moakler saw De La Hoya escorting another woman to the Latin Grammy Awards. In December 2000, Moakler filed a $62.5 million palimony suit, claiming he was an alcoholic and abusive; the case was settled out of court in 2001.

De La Hoya married Millie Corretjer on October 5, 2001; they have three children together and separated in 2016. He also has two sons from previous relationships. On December 12, 2002, he was granted Mexican citizenship. In September 2021, De La Hoya disclosed that he was raped by a woman when he was 13.

Business pursuits and projects

De La Hoya appeared on the front covers of EA Sports' Fight Night Round 3 and earlier on Knockout Kings 99 and Knockout Kings 2001. In 2000, EMI International released a self-titled Latin pop album, Oscar De La Hoya, which was nominated for a Grammy and certified Platinum (Latin) by the RIAA in June 2006. In 2004, he debuted a line of casual activewear through Mervyns department stores and hosted the boxing reality series The Next Great Champ on Fox.

In 2005, Golden Boy Enterprises formed Golden Boy Partners, focused on urban development in Latino communities. In 2006, a children's picture book titled Super Oscar was published by Simon & Schuster. In September 2007, Golden Boy Enterprises acquired The Ring, KO Magazine, and World Boxing Magazine. A 7 ft bronze statue of De La Hoya was unveiled at Staples Center on December 2, 2008.

In February 2008, Golden Boy acquired a 25% stake in Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo. He donated $3.5 million to the De La Hoya Animo Charter High School in 2008. His autobiography, American Son: My Story, was released by HarperCollins in June 2008.

Did You Know?

• De La Hoya graduated from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles in 1991.
• In September 2018, he was reported to be seriously considering a run for president of the United States.
• He competed on The Masked Dancer as "Zebra" in 2021 and on The Masked Singer as "Fuzzy Peas" in 2025.