Oscar De La Hoya: One of the Best Fighters of His Era

"The Golden Boy" Oscar de la Hoya will be remembered as one of the best fighters of his generation.

A fighter that looked like a handsome version of Thomas Hearns, with explosive power, blazing hand speed, agility, and a wrecking ball of a left hook, became boxing's biggest box office attraction ever.

Early in his career and barely breaking a sweat, "The Golden Boy" beat Rafael Ruels, Genaro Hernandez, and Jesse James Leija before moving up, in 1996, to fight boxing icon Julio Cesar Chavez.

Many people were calling Oscar a fraud, waiting for him to get beat—but the opposite occurred. A 22-year-old Oscar fought Sweet Pea Whitaker at 147. Whatever you think of the fight, it was close, and not bad for a 22-year-old without much experience.

Early in his professional career, some people objected to his stature against shorter opponents. I don't remember him as being "bigger" than many of his early adversaries. The Golden Boy made weight and was simply taller—not necesarily bigger.

People forget that he won Olympic gold in Barcelona at 122 pounds, and that for most of his early career Oscar was comfortable fighting below 140. But he was getting older, and his youthful frame was growing out of that weight (which happens to most boxers).

For the next ten years, Oscar took on the best and most challenging fights. Along the way, he made costly mistakes that shook his credibility as one of the most dominant fighters of his era. In the Quartey fight, the Golden Boy escaped the jaws of defeat by mercilessly punishing his much stronger opponent in the round 12.

In the Trinidad fight, Oscar boxed beautifully, but coasted in the last rounds. He beat Shane Mosley to the punch in the first half of their first encounter, only to slow down and lose the fight via a split decision.

But Oscar, determined to prove to the boxing world, and his fans, that he was not afraid to take challenges, went ahead and pushed the envelope further.

In 2002, Oscar fought and beat the highly capable, and much stronger, Fernando Vargas. The fight was extremely competitive until rounds 10 and 11, in which the faster and better boxer stopped Vargas via an 11th round TKO. This was perhaps the biggest and most satisfying win in Oscar's career.

Oscar then fought Sugar Shane Mosley again, and appeared to out-punch and out-box him during most of the fight. However, the judges favored Shane's harder punches and awarded him another decision.

To most of us who saw the fight on TV, Oscar appeared the sharper and more versatile of the two. To those who were at ringside, the fight was much closer. Still, the outcome was tarnished in controversy after BALCO made claims of steroid use.

Oscar continued seeking more challenges. He went on to fight the very talented—but at the time very much unknown—Felix Sturm.  This was his first fight at 160 pounds.

For years he was criticized for fighting fighters who moved up in weight to fight him, but this time it was Oscar who was moving up. Perhaps too much for his own good, but he wanted to make a statement.

The fight with Sturm turned into a mini-fiasco. Oscar and Sturm were almost the same height, but the size difference was apparent. Sturm looked like a lean  bodybuilder compared to Oscar who, well, looked like an over-blown and stretched junior welterweight in comparison.

Oscar barely won a round in most observers' cards. And quite honestly, a loss would've been good because it would've spared the boxing world from watching him fight an even larger and much stronger fighter: Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins.

Hopkins was the P4P supremo during this time and needed desperately the kind of mainstream media exposure that only Oscar could deliver.

On the September 18, 2004, they fought. The early rounds were close, and the Golden Boy fought remarkably well before fading late and losing by KO in the ninth round.

Oscar hasn't fought much since (about once a year) and his last fights suggest he is close to being done as a fighter. Still, his natural gifts and underrated hand speed were still able to beat the new P4P king Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in one of the judge's scorecards.  

De la Hoya was mostly the aggressor in that fight. His punches were not as sharp as Mayweather's, but he was still able to shake him with his constant pressure and body attacks.

Floyd was mostly on the defensive end, without an answer to Oscar's piston jab. But in the end, Mayweather's youth, gifts, and reflexes were able to overcome the aging de la Hoya in a close fight.

In sum, Oscar came somewhat short of being the next Sugar Ray Leonard in terms of accomplishments. However, it cannot be denied that Oscar proved over and over again that he was one of the best fighters in his era, and in the top five P4P in his prime