The main reason is because I love it and I miss it,” he says, beaming like a man given the choice of reliving his past or listening to Barry Manilow for the rest of his life.Ī Golovkin fight is wildly optimistic. He generated $700 million as a fighter and it is said he has hung on to more than $200 million of it. This, surely, was not a good career move for someone who turns 48 in February and has not fought in 12 years. Before GGG’s successful extension of his own career this month, he all but threatened to kill De La Hoya if they shared a ring. He has two items to sell, as it happens: his unbeaten young lightweight Ryan García – who defeated Luke Campbell to lift the interim WBC lightweight title in Dallas on Saturday – and himself.Īfter declaring García could be a bigger star than he was, De La Hoya confirms he wants to box again, perhaps against Gennady Golovkin. In a Zoom conversation from his home in California, the Golden Boy smiles pretty much from start to finish. With teeth as white as his, it is as easy to fix a grin as not, and, in pandemic-gripped boxing, there has not been much to smile about. “ am confident I will be back in the ring before the year is up.It has always been tough to tell if Oscar De La Hoya is smiling because he feels blessed to be alive or because he has something to sell. “Preparing for this comeback has been everything to me over the last months, & I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that he was hospitalized. But he announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus, despite being fully vaccinated, and would not be back in the ring anytime soon after all. 11 in a highly anticipated boxing match against UFC champion Vitor Belfort at the Staples Center. … This kid from East L.A., dreams do come true.”ĭe La Hoya, who has been retired for over a decade, was scheduled to make a comeback on Sept. “Truthfully, I feel like this is all a dream. “I have to pinch myself every day,” De La Hoya says. He is also involved in lucrative real estate deals.
kid went on to create an empire beyond the ring, with his company Golden Boy Promotions, an American boxing and mixed martial arts promotion firm based in L.A., and the Oscar De La Hoya Foundation, which is dedicated to helping underprivileged youth in the community that he grew up in. “I was always a very very proud American because there is no country better than the U.S., that’s for sure,” he says. When he goes into a boxing ring, De La Hoya always carries both an American flag and a Mexican flag. “My father and my mother, they came out to this country for a better life, basically,” 48-year-old De La Hoya told KTLA. The Hall of Fame boxer may be world famous now, but he will be the first to tell you his journey started in East Los Angeles. Boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya is known for his skills in the ring, but the champ’s killer instincts have transformed him into a business-savvy entrepreneur.