Oscar De La Hoya has revealed who he believes to be the greatest Mexican fighter of all time.
‘The Golden Boy’ burst onto the scene back in 1992, entering the paid ranks just a few months after he captured a lightweight Olympic Gold Medal at the Summer Games in Barcelona.
He would go on to win word titles in six weight classes before his retirement in 2008, racking up victories against the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez, Arturo Gatti, Ike Quartey and Pernell Whitaker amongst many others.
After walking away from the sport when he was beaten by Manny Pacquiao, De La Hoya shifted his focus fulltime to promoting under the Golden Boy banner, where he has worked with a number of generational greats including Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
‘The Golden Boy’, though born and raised in America, is proud of his Mexican roots and has an opinion just like all other fierce fight fans as to the best boxer the country has produced.
In an interview with Fight Hype, De La Hoya made no mistake in naming former rival Julio Cesar Chavez as the greatest Mexican fighter of all time, claiming there is ‘nobody better’ than the Hall of Famer.
“Even myself, I agree a thousand percent, I mean if somebody’s gonna tell me that there’s somebody better than Julio Cesar Chavez, I mean say it to my face.”
Throughout the course of his 25-year professional career, which began when he was just 17-years-old back in 1980, Chavez fought on 115 occasions, suffering just six defeats along the way.
The Mexican icon – whose son will face Jake Paul this weekend – won multiple world championships in three weight divisions, defeating the likes of Roger Mayweather, Meldrick Taylor and Hector Camacho. He announced his retirement in 2005, shortly after he was beaten by Grover Wiley in his 115th and final career outing.
