Oscar De La Hoya announces his retirement from professional boxing. In his career, he won an Olympic gold medal, 6 professional world titles, and defeated 17 world champions.
On Tuesday April 14th, 2009, Oscar De La Hoya announced his retirement from professional boxing.
De La Hoya won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics during a wonderful amateur career that included 223 wins, 163 by knockout, with just 6 losses.
During his professional career De La Hoya defeated 17 world champions and won 10 world titles in six different weight classes. He ended his career with 39 wins from 45 fights including 30 knockouts.
De La Hoya established Golden Boy Promotions in 2001 making him the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. In 2006, his company sold over 2 million pay-per-views. He owns a majority interest in the firm, and his partners include two boxers, Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley, who beat him in the ring.
In May 2007, De La Hoya took part in the highest-grossing fight in boxing history when he lost a split decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a super-welterweight title fight.
In December 2008, his final fight was against the Pound-4-Pound king Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines, who beat him after eight one-sided rounds in Las Vegas. Although it was Pacquiao’s first fight at welterweight, he easily beat a faded De La Hoya.
De La Hoya won his titles as follows:
1. WBO Super Featherweight Title in 1994 via a TKO of Jimmy Bredahl.
2. WBO Lightweight Title in 1995 via a points decision over John-John Molina.
3. WBC Light Welterweight Title in 1996 via a TKO of Julio César Chávez.
4. WBC Welterweight Title in 1997-04-12 via a points decision over Pernell Whitaker.
5. WBC Light Middleweight title in 2001 via a points decision over Javier Castillejo.
6. WBO Middleweight title in 2004 via a points decision over Felix Sturm.
