Latinos in Boxing

"Oscar De La Hoya was six years old when he first began to box. "My brother, Joel Jr., put a pair on me and the other pair on one of my cousins," Oscar recalled. " Then he yelled 'Time!' immediately, I covered my cheeks with the gloves." "The next thing I knew — wham — the first punch is a left jab that goes between my gloves and lands smack on my nose!" Oscar De La Hoya ran home, crying every step of the way." (1)

Oscar de La Hoya was born February 12, 1971, in East Los Angeles California. As you know of him today, he is one of the best middleweight boxing champions in the world.

"During his amateur boxing career, De La Hoya's record was an outstanding 223-5 with 163 knockouts" (1)

He turned pro right after winning the gold medal at the olympics in the 1992 Barcelona games. He fought in the welterweight division and has had a record pay-per-view box office sellout of his fight with Felix Trinidad on September 18, 1999. He lost this fight in a 12th round unanimous decision. After this fight and another loss to Sugar Shane Mosely, Oscar began to rethink is career in boxing and started to sing.

He had been singing since he was 7 and started to make a career of it. "De La Hoya release his first album on EMI/Latin Records named "Oscar" and was successful. The album topped Billboard's Latin Dance charts for several weeks and "Ven a Mi," a single from the album was nominated for a Grammy."(1)

With an amazing record as a boxer, he seems to follow in the footsteps of other boxing legends like Sugar Ray Leonard, the one previously referred to as the "Golden Boy". (2)

why is he famous?

"Oscar has one an olympic gold medal, numerous professional championship belts in different weight divisions. Until recent losses he was (and still is by some) regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. His pretty boy looks make him a big fan with the ladies and help make his fights box office hits." (2)