Comprehensive information and links about Oscar De La Hoya

Oscar De La Hoya — is a Mexican-American boxer who won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

He was the United States' top Olympic boxing hope when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She passed away at age 35. On her death bed, he promised her that he would win an olympic gold medal.

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

He also has lost to world champions Félix Trinidad (L 12), Shane Mosley (two decision losses), and Bernard Hopkins (KO 9).

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 .

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 (s) and released a Grammy nominated CD in October 2000, entitled "Oscar de la Hoya." It has 13 tracks.

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 was 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 junior middleweight championships, when the corner of his rival, former world champion understood that Campas had taken too much punishment in round seven. They threw in the towel, indicating that they were giving up, and officially gave 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 again took away De La Hoya's world title belts, with a 12 round unanimous decision over . This decision was met with a great deal of controversy, as de la Hoya was seen by many as the better fighter that night.

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. No evidence of fixing was discovered.

De La Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm for the WBO world middleweight title in June 2004. He won that fight by a disputed unanimous decision to become the first boxer in history to win world titles in 6 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 fight 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; a left hand to the sent him to the canvas, knocking De La Hoya out for the first time in his career. Hopkins would later join De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, a boxing promotion firm.

De La Hoya's record stands at 37 wins and 4 defeats, with 29 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.

In September 2005, De La Hoya's wallet was stolen by a pickpocket. The wallet contained a $1 food stamp coupon, a reminder of his poverty-stricken childhood in east Los Angeles.

De La Hoya is currently scheduled to face WBC world junior middleweight Ricardo Mayorga on May 6, 2006.

On December 30, 2005, De La Hoya and Corretjer had their first child together. Oscar De La Hoya Jr. was born in Puerto Rico.