The so-called 'dream match' resulted in De La Hoya announcing his retirement.
Oscar De La Hoya was prepared to die in the ring against Manny Pacquiao. He was also ready to hang up the gloves, but his camp didn't know it -- not his father, not his trainer, not his cutman. No one. Harboring yet another dark secret, De La Hoya tells ET he knew during training camp in Big Bear, California, that the Dec. 6, 2008 fight against PacMan would be his final bout. And if it led to a 10-bell salute, so be it.
It's a stunning admission that comes nearly 11 years after he shared, for the first time in 2012, that as he prepared for the Pacquiao fight, he guzzled wine and beer during training camp. Why? De La Hoya explained at the time that he felt -- and certainly looked -- physically superior over his much smaller opponent. But looks can be deceiving.
"I have the height, the weight, he couldn't beat me," reasoned the Golden Boy in an ESPN Deportes interview in 2012.
Yes, that was all true.
De La Hoya had a six-inch reach advantage over Pacquiao and a four-inch height advantage. What's more, PacMan had never fought above the lightweight division until he met De La Hoya in the welterweight division. But De La Hoya -- speaking to ET ahead of his two-part HBO documentary, The Golden Boy -- admits he wasn't exactly being transparent in 2012.
The truth of the matter is, De La Hoya started drinking halfway through training camp because he -- and he alone -- had already come to the conclusion that his career was over, and his fight against Pacquiao would be his last. Before even stepping into the ring at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, De La Hoya had already thrown in the towel, telling ET he knew his career was over when he was taking a beating from his own sparring partners during camp.
"It starts in training camp. I'm training for Manny, and keep in mind [it's] three months before the fight, OK?" De La Hoya says. "I was getting beat up by sparring partners. At one point, during training camp -- maybe midway -- I decided it's over for me. I can't take this. I'm getting beat up so much. My body doesn't feel right. I start drinking during camp."
It's the first time, De La Hoya says, he consumed alcohol during camp.
"I start drinking and drinking and I'm not caring anymore," he continues. "My whole career, I'm always focused. Always determined, 100 percent. But this time I just felt [like it was] over."
Just four months later, on April 14, 2009, De La Hoya announced his retirement across the street from where his seven-foot bronze statue still stands in front of what was then known as Staples Center.
Ironically, it was De La Hoya who called out Pacquiao to fight him in a clash billed as "The Dream Match." It was anything but, with De La Hoya taking such a beating it prompted the English-language newspaper, The Daily Inquirer, in the Philippines to run the headline "Dream Match Turns Into Total Mismatch," with a photo of De La Hoya's face bruised and his left eye swelled shut.
The biggest takeaway in the documentary as it revisits De La Hoya's most agonizing fight is when the Golden Boy reveals he hoped for a knockout punch to end it all. When asked if that scene can be interpreted as him essentially saying he was ready and willing to die in the ring on that fateful day, De La Hoya agrees.
"Yeah, you are [interpreting that scene in the documentary correctly]," he says. "When I went into the ring for Pacquiao, I knew something was wrong. When he was hitting me, I literally was in the corner hoping he would land the perfect punch, just to end it all."
It's important to note that it was clear to just about every boxing aficionado -- and especially those who grew up watching him -- that De La Hoya seemed off from the get-go. He got caught flatfooted as Pacquiao kept him off balance almost the entire match. De La Hoya struggled to counter Pacquiao's ferocious speed, who with such ease tattooed De La Hoya's face with blistering three-punch combinations. A double jab here, a straight right hand there.
The final three rounds were brutal. Instead of clinching (or hug an opponent in an effort to slow down or pause the onslaught), De La Hoya left himself wide open. He took such a beating in the seventh round that referee Tony Weeks walked over to De La Hoya's corner and warned him, "OK, gotta fight back now."
But there was no fight left in him, and that was crystal clear in the eighth round. De La Hoya was drained to the point of no return. A flurry of punches disoriented him so badly that Weeks probably would have stopped the fight right there and then had De La Hoya not been saved by the bell. Weeks certainly did not want to be part of another tragic story. Just three years prior at the same venue in Las Vegas, Weeks was the ref who stopped the Leavander Johnson-Jesus Chavez fight in the 11th round. Leavander, whose fight was promoted by De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, collapsed after exiting the ring and died from a brain injury less than a week later.
Looking all but defeated in his corner, De La Hoya was asked by a doctor if he was experiencing headaches or dizziness. The doctor was waved off. Weeks again walked over to De La Hoya's corner and sternly warned him, "OK. Listen, listen, listen. No, listen. If you keep taking punches I'm stopping the fight, OK?"
The mismatch was so apparent, the announcers were confident they had just witnessed De La Hoya's final round in his professional boxing career. And they were right. Before the ninth round could begin, De La Hoya got up off his stool, walked over to PacMan and gave him a hug, signaling the end of the fight and handing Pacquiao a technical knockout win. It was also, symbolically, a passing of the torch.
The deadly knockout, thankfully, never came, but De La Hoya tells ET his depression played a role in how he felt that day.
"At that point it was the peak of my depression. Or one of my depressions," he says. "It was the peak of it. So, I just wanted that fight to just end."
De La Hoya finished with a professional boxing record of 39 wins, 30 knockouts and six losses. He conquered 10 world titles in six weight classes. But the Olympic gold medalist and 2014 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, somehow, still feels he never lived up to his potential in the ring. He's got his father, Joel De La Hoya Sr., to thank for that.
"I think part of me always wanted to make my father proud. And I've always heard whispers that I could have done a lot better, that your father expected more from you. You know?" De La Hoya tells ET. "And so, it almost conditions you to really think that. Like, 'Yeah, you know what? You could have done a lot better. What's wrong with you?' It’s a mind thing."
"When somebody has that power over you, that authoritative figure, when they have that power over you, it’s hard to control or take a hold of it," he continues. "My father was very, he was a tough guy. When he said something, you had to believe it. You had no choice. I think, yeah, that’s why I was always so hard on myself because I always thought I could do better."
In the documentary, Joel shockingly concludes that had Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez, 33 at the time, been the same age as De La Hoya, 23, when they fought the first time in 1996 for the WBC super lightweight championship, Chavez would have beaten his son. It wasn't until he watched the documentary that De La Hoya says he found out his father felt this way.
"It's disappointing but it's expected," he says. "I didn't know that was his stance. I didn't know that he was convinced that Chavez can beat me if he was younger. That's who he is. I've accepted the fact that he's a tough man. But he’s still my father."
The Golden Boy premieres Monday, July 24, with part two airing Tuesday, July 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. Both episodes will be available to stream on Max beginning Monday, July 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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