Oscar De La Hoya

Bio

Right then. Oscar De La Hoya is the Golden Boy — the 1992 Olympic gold medallist from East LA who turned pro and proceeded to win world titles across six different weight divisions. From 130 all the way to 160. The lad was an absolute class act in the 1990s and 2000s and he fought, and beat, a generation of all-time greats: Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whitaker, Arturo Gatti, Ike Quartey, Fernando Vargas.

He lost too. Felix Trinidad on a controversial decision in 1999. Shane Mosley twice. Bernard Hopkins by that ninth-round body shot at 160 that he never came back from. Floyd Mayweather in what is still, for me, the biggest PPV event of the modern era. And finally Manny Pacquiao in 2008, which was the fight that told him it was time to hang them up. He did — and retired with a Hall of Fame career.

Since then he has been the face of Golden Boy Promotions, which he founded in 2002, and which has produced Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia, Bernard Hopkins in his second career, and a long list of other names. Make no mistake, Oscar is a proper boxing insider — a Hall of Famer on both sides of the ropes — and his voice carries weight when the sport is fighting over its own rules.

That is why he is testifying to the Senate Commerce Committee today on the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act. He has been a vocal opponent of the Unified Boxing Organization proposal, on the grounds that it risks handing control of the sport to a single conglomerate. Say what you want about his own promotional career — and you can say a lot — but on the UBO question, Oscar has been consistent and he has been right.