De La Hoya's amateur career included 234 wins, 163 by knockout, with only six losses. Of those six losses, two came at the hands of Shane Mosley. In 1989, he won the National Golden Gloves title in the bantamweight division. In 1990, at the age of 17, he won the U.S. National Championship at featherweight and was the youngest U.S. boxer at that year’s Goodwill Games, winning a gold medal. The joy of victory was tempered by the news that his mother, Cecilia, was terminally ill with breast cancer. She died in October 1990, expressing the hope that her son would one day become an Olympic gold medalist.

With the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, approaching, De La Hoya turned his mother’s dream into a strong focus for his training. After an upset victory in the first round over the Mexican boxer Julio Gonzalez, De La Hoya defeated Marco Rudolph of Germany to win gold. media publicized his quest to fulfill his mother's dying wish and dubbed him with the nickname "The Golden Boy," which has remained with him throughout his career.

After seven defenses of his Lineal/WBC welterweight titles, De La Hoya fought rival and IBF Champion Félix Trinidad (35–0) on September 18, 1999, in one of the biggest pay-per-view events in history, setting a record for a non-heavyweight fight. Oscar dominated the vast majority of the first six rounds. But in the last 2-3 rounds of the fight, heeding the strict instructions of his corner who felt that De La Hoya was way ahead on the scorecards, De La Hoya shut down his offense and evaded trading with Trinidad. De La Hoya virtually gave away the last couple of rounds. Though landing well over 100 more punches, Trinidad was ultimately awarded a majority decision. The judges scorecards came under question after the decision. Fans and boxing analysts called for a rematch, which never happened.

De La Hoya took promoter Bob Arum to court in the fall of 2000, trying to break his contract with the promoter. The courts ruled in favor of De La Hoya in February 2001. Tempers flared during the battle and reached a low in March 2001, when De La Hoya called Arum racist in a newspaper interview and then apologized for the remarks.

“I don't have blue eyes and I am not white, but a Mexican arriving on the cusp of fame, and that is what they do not support,” De La Hoya told La Opinion in 2001. “Bob Arum's people hope I lose because they can't see a Mexican above them, and also that he defeated one of the biggest Jews to come out of Harvard.”.

He then moved up to light-middleweight, challenging the Spanish Lineal/WBC champion Javier Castillejo. De La Hoya dominated the fight, winning almost every round and knocking Castillejo (51–4) down with ten seconds to go to win the title by a unanimous decision.

De La Hoya did not fight for the 15 months and in this time the rivalry between him and WBA champion "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas (22–1) grew. They knew each other as amateurs and it is said the rivalry began when Vargas was angered by De La Hoya laughing at him after he fell into a snowbank. De La Hoya said he would never fight him. Eventually, however, De La Hoya accepted a match. The fight was scheduled for early 2002, but De La Hoya had to withdraw because of a hand injury.

The unification bout, labeled "Bad Blood," finally took place on September 14, 2002, at the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip. The fight was even for the first six rounds, with Vargas landing punches on the ropes in the odd rounds, while De La Hoya outboxed him in the even rounds. De La Hoya took over the fight in the seventh round and hurt Vargas with a left hook in the tenth. In the next round, De La Hoya knocked Vargas down with a left hook and stopped him moments later. The win is widely considered to be the biggest of De La Hoya's career. Vargas tested positive for stanozolol after the fight.

De La Hoya defended his unified title against Yori Boy Campas (80–5) with a routine seventh round stoppage then faced Shane Mosley (38–2) in a rematch. The fight, billed as "Retribution" and staged at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, was more of a boxing match than their first encounter, and while some rounds were close, De La Hoya's game plan utilizing his jab seemed to be paying off, leaving Mosley visually frustrated. It was De La Hoya who seemed to be landing the cleaner, more effective punches, and obliterated Mosley in Compubox, landing over 100 more. But judges apparently didn't see it that way awarding Mosley with the controversial unanimous decision. Mosley was later connected to the BALCO Labs steroid scandal. Jeff Novitzky, a lead investigator on the BALCO case, reported that documents seized from the lab show that Mosley received "the clear" and "the cream," both designer steroids. Mosley reportedly began his doping regimen prior to his rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. Mosley would later admit to using performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO for this bout, saying he thought they were legal supplements.

De la Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm (20–0) for the WBO middleweight title on June 5, 2004. De La Hoya was awarded a unanimous decision, becoming the first boxer in history to win world titles in six different weight divisions. All three judges scored the bout 115–113 in favor of De La Hoya. The decision was controversial, far more so than his decision wins over Pernell Whitaker or Ike Quartey: Whereas the Whitaker & Quartey fights were considered close decisions that could've gone either way, the feeling from most is that De La Hoya flat-out lost to Sturm. Compubox counted Sturm as landing 234 of 541 punches, while counting De La Hoya as landing 188 of 792. There had been some rumblings throughout the boxing community that the decision was made to insure De La Hoya's mega-dollar fight with Bernard Hopkins, the undisputed middleweight world champion at that time. According to Sky Sports’ commentator Iain Darke, “That looks like a tailor made decision to set up De La Hoya versus Hopkins. (De La Hoya) got the benefit of high charity.” Sturm & his promotional team, Universum Box-Promotion, filed a protest with the Nevada State Athletic Commission over the decision, but it was to no avail, and the decision still stands today.

De La Hoya fought Bernard Hopkins (44–2–1) in a unification match on September 18, 2004 in Las Vegas. Hopkins held the WBC, WBA, and IBF middleweight titles, was recognized as Lineal and The Ring champion, and was considered by many to be the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. Although the fight was at a catchweight of 158 pounds (72 kg), many thought De La Hoya was too small for the weight class and Hopkins was considered a heavy favorite.

De La Hoya fought a tactical fight. After eight rounds, De La Hoya was ahead 77–75 on one scorecard. He was behind 78–74 and 79–73 on the other two scorecards. In the ninth round, Hopkins knocked out De La Hoya with a left hook to the body. It was the first time in De La Hoya's career that he was knocked out.

De La Hoya took a layoff of 20 months before signing to fight WBC light-middleweight title-holder Ricardo Mayorga (27–5–1). In the buildup to the fight, Mayorga insulted everything from De La Hoya's sexuality to his wife and child, but when they fought on May 6, 2006, De La Hoya knocked Mayorga down in the first minute of the fight with a left hook. He knocked him out in the sixth round to take his tenth world title.

The fight took place on May 5, 2007. De La Hoya pressed throughout all the rounds, doing his best when he used his left jab. Mayweather controlled the later rounds and was ultimately rewarded with a split decision victory in front of a sold-out arena at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Although Oscar was the obvious aggressor, chasing Mayweather and throwing many combinations, Mayweather dominated the stats, according to Compubox, connecting on 207 of his 481 total punches thrown. De La Hoya threw more punches—587—but landed only 122.

On May 3, 2008, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, De La Hoya fought Steve Forbes (33–5) in a tuneup for a possible rematch with Mayweather. De La Hoya showed a more relaxed style, throwing a constant jab and always staying on his toes. He opened a cut near Forbes' eye in the sixth round.

De La Hoya faced Manny Pacquiao (47–3–2) on December 6, 2008 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, Inc., the bout was a twelve round non-title fight at the 147-pound (67 kg) welterweight limit. Although Manny Pacquiao went into the fight recognized as the leading pound for pound boxer in the world, some pundits speculated that 147 pounds could have been too far above his natural weight against the larger De La Hoya. However, Pacquiao's trainer Roach was confident of a victory as he stated that De La Hoya could no longer "pull the trigger" at that stage of his career. De La Hoya, who was favored to win the bout due to his size advantage, was expected to be the heavier of the two on fight night. However, though Pacquiao weighed 142 pounds (64 kg) and De La Hoya 145 pounds (66 kg) at the official weigh-in on Friday, De La Hoya entered the ring at 147 pounds to Pacquiao's 148.5 pounds (67.4 kg).

De La Hoya took a beating and his corner stopped the fight after the eighth round. Pacquiao was ahead on all three judges' scorecards before the stoppage, with two judges scoring the fight 80–71 and the other judge scoring it at 79–72. After the bout, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach stated, "We knew we had him after the first round. He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot." Confirming Roach's pre-fight predictions that he'd grown too old, De La Hoya crossed the ring to Pacquiao's corner after the bout was stopped and told Roach, "You're right, Freddie. I don't have it anymore." When asked by reporters whether he would continue fighting, De La Hoya responded, "My heart still wants to fight, that's for sure," De La Hoya said. "But when your physical doesn't respond, what can you do? I have to be smart and make sure I think about my future plans." During the first episode of the HBO 24/7 Pacquiao–Hatton series, Roach had said he saw IV marks on De La Hoya's arm, pointing out that he needed to be rehydrated surgically as a last resort.

In 2004, he debuted a clothing line of casual, and active-inspired apparel through Mervyns department stores. In the summer of 2004, De La Hoya starred in and hosted a boxing reality television series on Fox and Fox Sports Net titled The Next Great Champ.

In 2006, De La Hoya authorized a children's picture book titled Super Oscar published by Simon and Schuster and released in his name. The book was written by noted children's author Mark Shulman and illustrated by children's illustrator Lisa Kopelke. The book tells the story of young Oscar as a daydreamer, who uses his great physical ability to prepare an elaborate picnic for his entire neighborhood in just fifteen minutes. Written in English and Spanish, the book received unanimously positive reviews from the publishing review journals. Super Oscar was selected as the winner of the 2007 Latino Book Awards Best Bilingual Children's Picture Book of the year.

In late 2007, photographs featuring De La Hoya cross-dressed in company of a woman not his wife were posted on a tabloid website and received extensive publicity across the internet. De la Hoya has denied the authenticity of the photos. His lawyer stated, "The photographs depicting Mr. De La Hoya's image that were posted online today by an obscure paparazzi Web site are fake. Many of the Web site's viewers (as reflected in postings on the site) identified the photos as 'a really bad photoshop job.' Unfortunately, with today's technology, anyone can make any photo seem like something other than it is." In September 2007, Mila Dravnel, the woman who sold the photographs, recanted her allegations against De La Hoya and denied the authenticity of the photographs. However, in May 2008, Dravnel sued De La Hoya for slander, but she dropped the lawsuit after experts determined the photographs had been digitally doctored. However, in De La Hoya's August 2011 interview with Univision, he confirmed that it was indeed him in the leaked 2007 photos.

In May 2011, De La Hoya acknowledged he has a problem, but the nature of the issue was not revealed. "After doing an honest evaluation of myself, I recognize that there are certain issues that I need to work on. Like everyone, I have my flaws, and I do not want to be one of those people that is afraid to admit and address those flaws." He underwent treatment at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California for his alcoholism.

In September 2013, just a few days before the Golden Boy promoted match of Floyd Mayweather vs. Saul Alvarez, De La Hoya announced that he was returning to a drug and alcohol treatment facility to address his "disease".

Reference

Oscar De La Hoya. (2014). Retrieved on April 27, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_De_La_Hoya.