Oscar De La Hoya

Oscar De La Hoya (born February 4, 1973) —nicknamed the Golden Boy— is an American boxer who won the gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

He was, much like Ernie Gonzalez also, the United States' top Olympic boxing hope when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. On her death bed she made him promise he'd win the gold, and he did. She soon passed away at 35.

De La Hoya signed for 1 million dollars with promoter Bob Arum and went on to win 5 world titles and beat former and current world champions like Troy Dorsey (KO 1), Jimmy Bredahl, (KO 10), Jorge Paez, (KO 2), Genaro Hernandez (KO 6), John John Molina (Split Decision win 12), Rafael Ruelas (KO 2), Julio Cesar Chavez (KO 4, KO 8), Miguel Angel Gonzalez (Unanimous Decision win 12), Jesse James Leija (KO 2), Pernell Whitaker (SD win 12), Hector 'Macho' Camacho (UD win 12), Ike Quartey (SD win 12), Arturo Gatti (KO 5), Francisco Javier Castillejo (UD win 12), and Fernando Vargas (KO 11).

He also has lost to world champions Félix Trinidad (Majority decision loss 12), and Shane Mosley (UD loss 12, split decision in 12) and Bernard Hopkins (knocked out in nine rounds).

De La Hoya is one of the favorite boxers of American cable channel HBO, where he currently produces a popular Spanish language boxing show called Boxeo de Oro.

De La Hoya's interests outside the ring include architecture, acting, fashion designing, and singing. He designed his own house in Big Bear Lake, California, has a clothing line (BUM, or Boxing UniforMs) and released a Grammy nominated cd.

He married Puerto Rican singing superstar Millie Corretjer on October 5, 2001, and lives half of the year in Los Angeles and the other half in Puerto Rico. De La Hoya has 3 children by 3 different women: Jacob (b. February 18, 1998), Devon (b. November 30, 1998) by former dancer Angelique Desbrow and Atiana Cecilia (b. March 29, 1999) by actress Shanna Moakler. In June 2003, Desbrow's family reported her and Devon missing, their car found parked at a Riverside, California shopping center. The two were found safe five days later.

On May 3, 2003, as part of the Cinco de Mayo festivities, he retained his WBC and WBA world Jr Middleweight championships, when the corner of his rival, former world champion Yori Boy Campas understood that Campas had taken too much punishment in round seven and threw in the towel, indicating that they were giving up, and officially giving De La Hoya a seventh round knockout win. De La Hoya hurt his left hand in the process of defeating Campas. On September 13, he and former rival Mosley met once again, in Las Vegas, and Mosley once gain took away De La Hoya's world title belts, with a 12 round unanimous decision over The Golden Boy.

On February 9, 2004, the FBI announced it would investigate whether the rematch with Mosley had been fixed, placing Arum's promoting company, Top Rank, in the middle of a scandal that allegedly involved bribing the judges so they would score the fight for Mosley.

De La Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm for the WBO world Middleweight title on June. He won that fight by a close but unanimous decision to become the first boxer in history to win world titles in six different weight divisions. After that, he hoped to unify that title with the three other world Middleweight championships, held by Bernard Hopkins, on September 18. De La Hoya cancelled a contract with NBC to cover the Olympic Games in Athens so that he could fulfill the compromise against Sturm, and later on, against Hopkins. Because of this, NBC has filed a lawsuit against him, asking for 30 million dollars.

He lost to Hopkins by a ninth round knockout on the appointed date; a left hand to the body sent him to the canvas, knocking De La Hoya out for the first time in his career.

De La Hoya's record stands at 37 wins and 4 defeats, with 31 wins by knockout.

In April 2005, De La Hoya and a Southern California real estate developer, Highridge Partners, formed a real estate investment partnership named Golden Boy Partners to invest in Latino neighborhoods.ja:オスカー・デラホーヤ