E-mail a friendOscar De La Hoya
original airdate June 18, 2008
Regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Oscar De La Hoya is an icon whose popularity transcends the sport. Born in East LA into a boxing family, his first experience with boxing gloves was at age 5. He won a gold medal for the U.S. at the '92 Olympics in Barcelona and, after, turned pro, winning six world titles. De La Hoya went on to star in and host the Fox Sports net's, The Next Great Champ, and form Golden Boy Promotions. In '00, he won a Grammy nod for his recording of a pop music CD.
Olympic gold medalist lets Tavis in on his retirement plans. (1:22)
Full Interview (23:43)
Oscar De La Hoya
Tavis: So pleased to welcome Oscar De La Hoya to this program. The very popular boxing champion has been a fixture in the sport since capturing a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics. He since then has gone on to become one of the most bankable stars in the sport.
He has a new memoir out about his upbringing in East L.A. and his boxing career. The book is called "American Son: My Story." Champ, nice to have you here.
Oscar De La Hoya: Good to be here, thank you.
Tavis: You all right?
De La Hoya: Appreciate it.
Tavis: Nice to see you. Great title, "American Son," although as good as you are at marketing and branding and promoting, I was surprised that it wasn't called "The Golden Boy."
De La Hoya: (Laughs) Right. I think the title was very interesting to choose, because I do feel like America's son. I do feel like - I was born in this country and I'm very proud of it, and I am - we all are America's sons. So I think the title was perfect.
Tavis: It is a perfect title, and yet after I thought about the fact that it could have been called "The Golden Boy," given how great you are at marketing and branding and promoting, the second thought I had just looking at the title was the controversy that you've had to deal with from time to time in your life about whose side you're really on.
De La Hoya: Right.
Tavis: And you've had some fights where you've been caught in the middle of whose side you're on. How have you navigated that particular?
De La Hoya: It's been difficult. Sometimes I ask myself, where do I stand here? How do people perceive me? Do they think I'm Mexican or do they think I'm American?
Tavis: But you're born here.
De La Hoya: I was born here, so I'm American, with Hispanic roots. My parents are Mexican, they migrated here when they were 16 years old, and they always instilled in us, be proud of your country, be proud of where you're from. Capture that American dream.
So I'm still fighting - fighting for that respect of people who kind of see me as a person who is undecided where he's from, but hey, I'm going to continue to be proud of America and proud of having my Mexican roots.
Tavis: Does it hurt - is it distracting in a fight with somebody like Julio Cesar Chavez or other fights you've had, but he comes to mind immediately, does it hurt or is it distracting when you walk into the arena, you're in the ring, and you see these flags being waved and you see people rooting for the other guy on the heritage chip rather than rooting for the American son?
De La Hoya: Absolutely. I didn't understand it. Here you have an Olympic gold medalist, represented the USA, was very proud of waving the Mexican flag, even though I was representing my country here in the worldwide, everybody watching Olympic Games. So I felt proud, I still feel proud, and I didn't understand what's - why are you cheering against me?
I'm here for you. I won the Olympic gold medal for you, I'm winning world titles for you, I'm representing you. And so against Chavez especially, against Fernando Vargas also, who claimed I wasn't, I guess, Mexican enough.
Tavis: You weren't authentic, yeah. (Laughter)
De La Hoya: So it's been very difficult, but hey, I am who I am.
Tavis: Yeah, well, and let me say without apology, ain't nobody feeling sorry for Oscar. (Laughter) You've done all right in that controversy and beyond. Speaking of the 1992 Olympic gold medal, let me - there's some great stories in the book. Let me take you back to the sixth grade and the story you tell in the book of your sixth grade teacher asking the kids - and yeah, I see you smiling already; it's a great story - asking the kids in the classroom, in your classroom, to write an essay about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
De La Hoya: Right.
Tavis: And so most of your classmates are writing they want to be the typical answer - doctors and lawyers and policemen. And you write what, and what does your teacher say to you when you turn your essay in?
De La Hoya: Well, I'm writing the essay and I'm here smiling and just thinking about what I'm writing, and I hand it over to the teacher and I have to read it in front of the class. And so I read the essay and I'm saying I want to be an Olympic champion. An Olympic boxer.
And everybody starts laughing, the teacher, and I get in trouble for it, and I'm devastated by it. I'm like, why are you guys laughing? This is serious. But moments like those, moments like that really just made me realize hey, you got to work hard. You got to take it to that next level and work as hard as you can to accomplish that dream, and that's what I did.
Tavis: And then you tell the story beyond that of how you end up talking to your mother about this, and you talk so lovingly of your mother in the book, who is now deceased - we'll talk about that in a moment, maybe.
But your mother, you tell in the book, really got behind you to really help you achieve that dream. They were laughing at you, but your mama was right in your corner, literally.
De La Hoya: My mother was right in my corner. My mother wasn't the typical mom, where she would tell her son "Okay, don't go to the gym, it's too dangerous. Fighting, you can get hurt." She was behind me 100 percent, I guess because she had no choice. My father was a fighter, my grandfather was a fighter. We come from a boxing family.
And so she would always get, I guess, when we would make decisions around the house, she was always the minority. And so she accepted, hey, she accepted her son to be a champion, and so every single day she was behind me. Going to the gym, she would go to my fights. Even when she had cancer, in her final days, final moments, she would go and miss her radiation treatments to go support me. So she was an amazing woman.
Tavis: Tell me how you processed that part of your life. Your mother ends up - well, she's your mother. She's one of your biggest supporters and fans, and she's been there for you all along. And as your career is starting to ascend, your mother discovers that she has breast cancer. And to your point now, she was there all the way to the end, supporting you. How did you get your way through that particular part of your story?
De La Hoya: Well, what I describe in the book is my mother didn't tell us that she had cancer. She waited till the end. Her excuse was that she didn't want to make her kids suffer, and so she would miss a lot of radiation treatments, she would just be strong and hang in there. And till the end, she was there for us. She wasn't really thinking about herself, she was thinking about her kids, and it was devastating for me because here you have a mother who her dying wish, to go to the Olympics and win the gold medal, those were literally her last words.
And the pressure that I had to accomplish that goal was incredible, and I'm just extremely happy that I accomplished it, because I would have been - I probably wouldn't have been here today. I wouldn't have been a professional fighter. I would probably have gone on to school, to college, do something else, but I wouldn't have been the golden boy.
Tavis: And you say that why, because you would have felt you let your mother down?
De La Hoya: Exactly. It just would have been too much of a blow for me. I would have gotten knocked out, not just in the ring, but in life in general. That was her wish. I just had to do it.
Tavis: So what's there to learn, then, for Oscar about how to deal with pressure and particularly pressure that you put yourself under? What do you learn out of that experience, because you obviously succeeded. You won the gold medal. But what did you learn from putting yourself under that kind of pressure?
De La Hoya: I learned that I could go through fire. In any situation I'm in, whether it's in the ring or outside the ring, I can deal with it, I can handle it, because that pressure that I had was by far the most pressure I've ever felt. And so I don't think I've ever - will experience something like that again, feeling that pressure and having to do something for someone who - it was incredible, but again, I had to do it.
Tavis: When you read this book, for me, at least, East L.A. is not just a place in this book, East L.A. is a character. It's like East L.A., your growing up, you said a moment ago if you don't win the gold medal, you're not here talking to me, you're not the golden boy, you're not this world champion.
I get the same sense, though, that East L.A. is - if there is no East L.A., there is no Oscar De La Hoya. That's like a character in this book. So talk to me about how East L.A. situates itself in your story.
De La Hoya: East L.A. is home. East L.A., growing up in the neighborhood really molded me to be the person I am today. The strong person who takes no for an answer, the fighting person who is always going to get back up from a knock-down, whether it's in the ring or outside the ring. East L.A. really instilled some really good values, I have to say, because although I was surrounded by the gang-infested streets and the crack houses, you want to say, around my neighborhood, I grew up very happy.
I grew up with good family values, but I learned. I learned from all the mistakes that other people were making around me. That's what made me strong; that's what made me the person I am today.
Tavis: One of the things about this book that surprised me - pleased me, but surprised me, speaking of mistakes - your word - you're very candid abo9ut some of the mistakes you've made in your life. You and I were talking the other day on radio and I was saying to you that one of my friends says to me all the time that people see your glory, but they don't know your story.
De La Hoya: Right.
Tavis: And you are now in that point of your life where we can see your glory. You don't have to go back; you didn't have to go back into the back story. But you talk about some of the mistakes you've made. Why did you feel the need to be so candid about some of the mistakes you've made in your own life with women, with gambling, etc., etc.?
De La Hoya: Everyone will always talk about the glory, and a lot of people are always afraid to talk about the times in life where you had difficult ones, where you were down in life and didn't know how to get back up. Well, I explain those situations in my book, and I'm not ashamed to say them. Those experiences can be learning lessons for other people.
In life, like I said, you get knocked down. Hey, I got back up and I fought even harder. Hopefully people, if they want to pursue their dream and their goal, I tell them that hey, you know what? I tell them the truth. It's not easy, because nothing's easy. A lot of people think it is easy, that it's a short road and it's easy. You know, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can grab it. I can reach out and grab that American dream.
Well, it took me more than 25 years to accomplish that American dream, to accomplish and make my dreams come true. And I tell people, hey, I went through some tough roads, I committed many mistakes, but I learned from them. And hopefully, people will not only be inspired but will learn from what I'm talking about.
Tavis: When you write a book like this about your life, Champ, I know, again, even given the size of the book, there's some stuff that you can put in, some stuff you can't put in, just because of the size of the text. But you have a number of defining moments - I would call them defining moments - in your life that you talk about here. We discussed one already, about your mother.
Beyond the passing, the transition of your mother, to your point about being knocked down and getting back up, tell me, I'm going to let you choose another defining moment in your life.
De La Hoya: Another defining moment.
Tavis: For you.
De La Hoya: Probably had to be the gambling. Many years ago - I wasn't a compulsive gambler, I didn't gamble every day, I didn't gamble every month. Maybe every time I fought, which was at the time two, three times a year. But I would lose a few dollars, big amounts of money.
Tavis: Charles Barclay kind of money?
De La Hoya: Well, not that big. (Laughter) Not that big.
Tavis: All right.
De La Hoya: So the way to feel good about myself so I won't be devastated by it, I would invite 100 people over to my room. Hey, let's go have a party, let's go have some fun. And so I would have the people there in my room and loud music playing.
And all of a sudden I go to the window of the suite and I'm looking out the Sunset Strip - the strip there in Vegas, in Las Vegas, and I just start bawling and crying. I roll into a little ball to the ground and - and that was a turning point in my life, and I changed the partying, I changed the friends, I changed my life.
So if that didn't happen that night, who knows what would have happened? Because you hear about all these stories of athletes and people who get money at a young age, the success; you're in the limelight; people don't know how to deal with the pressure. And I think that turning point was important for me because it's made me the person who I am today. It made me grow up.
Tavis: To your credit, again, something else I like about the book. We all know the victories. We know the record, we've seen you knock people down, knock people out, you've become the golden boy. But you also are very candid in the book about why you lost the few fights that you have lost. Let me throw a couple of names at you. I know folk will want to read this for themselves, but now, in retrospect, you have lost to Shane Mosley why?
De La Hoya: Shane Mosley, I lost to him because - and this is the truth. (Laughter) It's no excuses.
Tavis: Yeah, all right, tell the truth.
De La Hoya: I ate some bad oysters. I ate some bad oysters. I had a bad stomach. It's a true story. I fought in Los Angeles 2001, at the Staples Center. It was the first fight ever at the Staples Center. So I was excited, I was excited to be here in my home town.
So we make the weight, and I was ecstatic of making the weight because at that time I was already have difficulties making a welterweight, which is 147 pounds. So I make the weight on Friday and I tell my whole team, probably about 20 of us, let's go to East L.A. where I grew up. Let's go to a little Mexican restaurant, seafood restaurant. Let's get some mariachi, let's celebrate making the weight.
So what do I do? I order oysters - 24 oysters. Everybody else is eating their tacos and their burritos and they're drinking their beers, and I'm sticking to my oysters and my water, and that's all I'm having. So I get back to the hotel and all of a sudden, I'm feeling like a sick cat. I'm just - I cannot stand up, I cannot - all night, I'm just sick.
So the next morning, instead of gaining weight, because obviously when you weigh in the night before, fighters tend to gain about 10, 15 pounds, I lose weight. I end up losing about five pounds. So now I'm weighing about 142 pounds the night of the fight, with my stomach sore. I was touching my stomach and my stomach was just sore.
And I was hoping please, Mosley, do not hit me in my stomach. (Laughter) Every single round, I was praying he would not hit me in my stomach. And I was weak; I was just not right for that fight. But hey, Mosley beat me, he's a great champion, a great champion, and he was the better man that night, yeah.
Tavis: All right, and Mayweather, who has now said he's retired - we'll come back to that in a moment - but the Mayweather fight?
De La Hoya: Mayweather fight, I fought the best pound-for-pound champion in the world. I thought I did well. It was a close fight, and I would love to have another crack at him, absolutely.
Tavis: What do you make of the fact, then, that he has said he's going to retire?
De La Hoya: I wish him the best. I hope he sticks to his word. I really do, because -
Tavis: Come on, you know you want that fight.
De La Hoya: I want it, absolutely. Absolutely, I want it. (Laughter) But I'm fighting one time this year, and I'm hanging up the gloves.
Tavis: You're going to retire? You're going to retire?
De La Hoya: I'm hanging up the gloves.
Tavis: One more fight and you're done.
De La Hoya: One more fight and I'm done. And there's nothing and nobody that will lure me back. I've been preparing for this moment for the last three years, and mentally and physically I'm set to go, I'm ready.
Tavis: How do you know that this is the moment? Because every boxer, as you well know, says he's retiring, comes back, usually for the money. But how do you know that this - I know you don't need the money now, but how do you know that this is the moment for you?
De La Hoya: I'm prepared. I'm - like I said, three years in preparing for retirement. I even have the speech ready.
Tavis: (Laughs) You got the tears ready, too?
De La Hoya: I can see myself already, live on ESPN, crying tears, announcing retirement.
Tavis: To your point about retirement, how is it - because this, for me, is the most fascinating part of your life. You're not just a great boxer, you're not just a champion, you're not just rich and invested your money well, but you have become a brand. This Golden Boy Productions and all of the other stuff you do, to say nothing of being a boxing promoter while you're still in the game.
If athletes don't get anything else, don't learn anything else from your book or your life, how did you pull that off?
De La Hoya: I've always been very ambitious, since I was a kid. I remember when I was 10, 11 years old, I signed an Olympic poster. I signed it Oscar De La Hoya, Olympic champion, at that age. So I've always had big dreams, and I've always tried to make sure I accomplished those dreams, and I always reached for the stars.
I thought that it was necessary, about seven, eight years ago I said to myself, "Okay, you have a lot of controversy in boxing and why is that controversy happening in the sport? Is it because of promoters, is it because of fighters? What's going on?" So I came to the conclusion that, "Hey, you have all these promoters who have a bad reputation. I have to speak the truth here."
And so I decided to start Golden Boy Promotions. I assembled a team of people that had nothing to do with boxing. A team of people that their background was - whether it was banking - smarter people than me. So I assembled this team, and with my expertise in the sport we've been able to grow Golden Boy into the biggest promoter in the world in such a short period of time.
And it's not just a promotional vehicle to assemble big fights and make these big events happen, it's a vehicle to really help the sport of boxing, to help the fighter. We educate the fighter. Look, these are the revenue streams, this is what you're going to make. This is probably what you're going to pay in taxes; you have to pay your managers, your promoters.
Tavis: Promoters aren't supposed to do that.
De La Hoya: (Laughs) Right.
Tavis: That's the problem.
De La Hoya: That's the problem.
Tavis: It's greed that gets them. You're telling these guys too much information. How do you make money if you tell them all of that?
De La Hoya: Well, we treat it as a business, and in this business of boxing, the fighter makes the bulk of the money, at least with Golden Boy.
Tavis: That's good. I assume, then - you tell me - this is how you see yourself beyond retirement, staying connected to the sport?
De La Hoya: Mm-hmm, absolutely. I think that's - it's going to make it much easier for me to retire. I'll still be involved, I'll still be able to get on top of that ring, listen to some cheers, maybe some boos, but I'll still be connected. It'll be forever. I can picture myself a promoter for a long time.
Tavis: I guess the question is whether or not you have a prescription for the sport, because it's ailing right about now.
De La Hoya: Exactly, and I have to agree with you. I feel that every sport has its ups and downs in popularity, whether - for instance when we had Mike Tyson at the pinnacle of his career, boxing was the sport to watch. You had the Sugar Ray Leonards of this world, you have Muhammad Ali, you had myself at the pinnacle of my career. We were carrying the sport.
And so I just feel that it's a matter of creating, of molding, these champions of tomorrow, and we're lacking network television, we're lacking the main street media to be behind the sport, and it's a matter of making sure that boxing is one. Making sure that you don't have - see, because right now, boxing is like a mom-and-pop shop, so to speak.
You have so many promoters out there, all over the world. There's no league, there's no one commission. You have one commission in every state. So there's no rules. Everybody makes up their own rules. So these are situations that hopefully can be resolved in the years to come.
Tavis: Well, if anybody can resolve them, I got my money on the Golden Boy. The pride of East Los Angeles, Oscar De La Hoya. The new book is called "American Son: My Story." Champ, nice to have you here.
De La Hoya: Thank you.
Tavis: And we'll see you later this year for that last fight.
De La Hoya: Wonderful.
Tavis: All right.
Back to June 18, 2008