Oscar De La Hoya the Best Pound for Pound Business Man

Recently I was in a soap commercial for a product that I honestly actually use and support in real life.

The wardrobe lady dressed me up in 1980's vintage clothing. She dressed me up in an AC Slater-like sleeveless sweatshirt top and Z. Cavaricci-esque jeans. It looked like I was a back up dancer for Vanilla Ice or the sixth member of New Kids On the Block, but hey this was a period piece scene.  

There was a massive rain making machine that made the whole block rain on this sunny Sunday morning which made me soaking wet and the director made me wear this ghetto rain hat made out of newspaper. In the commercial I am running up and down the downtown Los Angeles area street of 626 Wilshire Blvd.

During one of the takes I ran for cover from the rain in the doorway entrance and to my amazement I saw the Golden Boy Promotions Logo in the lobby and it was huge. I then put two and two together and realized we were shooting this commercial right outside of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions headquarters.

I then began to look up at this huge tall sky scraper and really began to understand just how successful Oscar De La Hoya has become.

This was a Sunday morning, when most corporate offices are usually closed, but there were two Golden Boy employees working in the lobby probably wondering why the hell is this guy soaking wet and wearing these horrible 1980’s clothes?

For those of you who need a further description of how powerful and strong Golden Boy Promotions has become it was like the opening credits to the classic hit show “Diff’rent Strokes” when Mr. Drummond is seen walking Arnold and Willis into the lobby of his pimp Park Avenue penthouse skyscraper.

Seeing this in person really inspired me on many levels. To say Oscar came a long way is an extreme understatement. For those of you who do not know, as a child Oscar grew up dirt poor in the neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and to this day he still keeps a food stamp in his wallet to remind him how hard he used to have it growing up as a kid.

Since then Oscar De La Hoya has earned more money from the sport of boxing than any other fighter—an estimated $696 million—and has evolved into a fight promoter and business man. 

He has turned his Golden Boy Promotions from a fight promoting company to an international business empire conglomerate crossing over into other sports such as MMA and soccer and buying the legendary magazines, The Ring Magazine , KO Magazine , World Boxing Magazine , and Pro Wrestling Illustrated .

Golden Boy has also dabbled in clothing, music, and producing television programs, and Oscar even has his own school dedicated to underprivileged youth for higher quality of education.

As a fighter I was huge fan of Oscar up until the Trinidad fight. I then realized that night that Oscar no longer was the 100 percent whole hearted fighter that defeated all 30 of his impressive wins with ease. He then chose to focus 100 percent of his heart into business and evolved into Oscar the “business man” who I am still a fan of to this day.

With the sport of boxing producing so many tragedy-ending stories to once superstar millionaire fighters, it is inspiring to see a top fighter like Oscar De La Hoya become a champion not only in the ring but outside the ring as well as the president of his own business empire.

One may say that Oscar lost all of his super mega fights, but it can also be viewed that Oscar only lost to the best top pound for pound fighters. Most importantly, Oscar never ducked anyone.

That same concept can be applied to any industry that one works in whether one is an athlete, business man, or what have you, it is not necessarily the most important thing that you succeed but that you try and that no one can say you ducked anyone or any challenge. We should all go for it and go for the gold just as Oscar De La Hoya did.

*If anyone sees my commercial anywhere on television or on the Internet please email me I have some residuals checks I need to collect!