Oscar De La Hoya is widely considered to be one of the greatest fighters of his generation.
The Mexican-American great, known as ‘The Golden Boy’, entered the professional ranks during the early 1990s, shortly after he captured a Lightweight Gold Medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
He would go on to capture world titles across six weight classes throughout the course of his 16-year tenure, racking up victories over the likes of Pernell Whitaker, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr and Hector Camacho along the way.
‘The Golden Boy’ did suffer a handful of defeats during his career however, although legendary promoter Bob Arum believes ‘The Golden Boy’ was actually robbed in at least two of these fights.
Speaking about De La Hoya’s 1999 showdown with Felix Trinidad in an interview with ESPN, Arum claimed he was ‘stunned’ at the result, claiming that the six-division world champion ‘beat the s**t’ out of ‘Tito’.
“I mean, anybody objectively watching that fight, on the first 10 rounds can barely give Trinidad two of those rounds. Oscar beat the s— out of him and out-boxed him the entire way … I was stunned. I was stunned with those cards. He clearly won that fight.”
Trinidad was declared the winner via majority decision when he clashed with De La Hoya, although many viewers, including Arum, disagreed.
The same could be said about De La Hoya’s 2003 showdown with Shane Mosley, who defeated ‘The Golden Boy’ via unanimous decision to capture the WBC and WBA super-welterweight titles. Arum said that he believes De La Hoya won the majority of the rounds.
“Oscar won eight or nine rounds and I was stunned when [the decision] went for Mosley.”
Despite suffering these defeats that could have quite easily gone in his favour, De La Hoya’s legacy is still held in the highest regard.
