Oscar De La Hoya announces retirement
Why
Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's "Golden Boy" who capitalized on a stirring Olympic gold-medal performance in 1992 and then in his pro career captured the attention of millions with his rags-to-riches rise from East Los Angeles, announced his retirement today. "I'm announcing my retirement. . . . When I can't compete at my highest level, it's not fair -- to me, [or] my fans," De La Hoya, 36, said a news conference outside downtown's L.A. Live complex. "Knowing that you're never going to compete again is a tough decision, but now I am looking forward to the future of boxing. When I cannot compete at this level, I have come to the conclusion that it is over." De La Hoya lost two of his last three fights: a split-decision defeat at the hands of unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 20007 that stands as the most lucrative event in boxing history; and December's one-sided loss to Filipino Manny Pacquiao that dropped De La Hoya's career record to 39-6 with 30 knockouts. In his last bout, De La Hoya was beaten to the punch by the smaller, younger Pacquiao and De La Hoya watched his corner throw in the towel before the ninth round. Seconds later, De La Hoya approached his former trainer, Pacquiao's chief cornerman Freddie Roach, and said, "You were right, Freddie. I don't have it anymore." But for many years, De La Hoya had it like no one else in boxing. He caught America's imagination in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, becoming a darling of NBC not only because of his ring prowess and movie star-like looks, but because of the death-bed promise he had made to his breast-cancer stricken mother, Cecelia, two years earlier to bring a gold medal back from the Summer Games. By beating Germany's Marco Rudolph, he succeeded. Pushed to boxing by his father, Joel, De La Hoya developed a style as a natural lefty (who nevertheless fought out of a right-handed stance) that would prove dominant because of a wicked left hook that routinely hammered foes, starting with his first-round KO of Lamar Williams in De La Hoya's 1992 pro debut at the Forum. De La Hoya was marketed brilliantly by promoter Bob Arum, who took full advantage of the charming fighter's bilingual skills and Mexican American appeal to a surging Latino population in the U.S. "He was a gold-medal winner, had a very sympathetic story, was extremely good-looking and articulate in both languages," Arum said. "With the Hispanic market becoming so huge and the attraction he had from women, we crossed him over to the general public very well." Arum's matchmaker, Bruce Trampler, also orchestrated a master plan of pitting the "Golden Boy" against young fighters who could challenge him and teach him a ring lesson but posed little risk of beating him. De La Hoya's rise also was mapped against older, declining fighters such as Genaro Hernandez, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez, who gave him a name opponent and built his success as a celebrity in the ring. Arum recalled seeing a New Yorker cartoon during that period in which two women of high society commented that their "ideal man" was a cross between Oscar De La Hoya and [clothing designer] Oscar de la Renta. The boxer also engaged in the excitement of his fast times. In 1998, De La Hoya told The Times in an interview addressing his partying in Cabo San Lucas and gambling in Las Vegas that he didn't always want to live up to the "Golden Boy's" squeaky-clean image. The story reported: Last spring, De La Hoya was spotted making nightly treks into a bar in Cabo . . . where he became publicly drunk, dancing on tables with half-clad females. He has been spotted at several casinos on the Las Vegas strip, gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars, a fact that has so concerned his promoter, Arum, and chief advisor, Mike Hernandez, that they have asked some casinos to put a limit on what De La Hoya can wager. De La Hoya has five children with four women, but he's been married to Puerto Rican singer Millie Corretjer since 2001. By 1999, De La Hoya's welterweight title showdown against fellow unbeaten Felix Trinidad became a record pay-per-view bout for a non-heavyweight fight. But it resulted in De La Hoya's first loss, blamed mostly on his strategy to backpedal through most of the final three rounds and protect a points lead; Trinidad won the fight by a narrow decision. De La Hoya finished 8-6 in his final 14 fights. His finest victory during that period was an 11th-round TKO of Oxnard's Fernando Vargas in 2002, a triumph sweetened by Vargas' pre-fight taunts of De La Hoya and the loser's post-fight positive test for steroids.
Search Terms:
oscar de la hoya, millie corretjer, daisy de la hoya, de la hoya, floyd mayweather, shane mosley
References:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-boxing-oscar-retires15-2009apr15,http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/42986852.html,http://bleacherreport.com/articles/155660-oscar-de-la-hoya-a-golden-farewell-from-the-golden-boy-of-boxing
