By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 15 Apr 2009
Oscar de la Hoya announces his retirement Wednesday during a press conference at the Nokia Plaza in downtown Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES -- Boxing's Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya formally announced his retirement today during a press conference held at the Nokia Plaza in downtown Los Angeles surrounded by family and close friends and in front of the international media.
De la Hoya, a 10-time world champion and the only boxer in history to have won six titles in six divisions, kept his emotions in checked and told the fully packed media conference "now I understand why an athlete has so much hard time retiring."
De La Hoya looked like a shell of himself when he was pummeled from end to end by Filipino phenom Manny Pacquiao last Dec. 6 in Las Vegas before Oscar quit on his stool in round eight. "After that fight, I thought that was it for Oscar," De La Hoya's wife Millie told the media when it was her turn to speak. But it took Oscar 'four agonizing months' before arriving a decision.
"The decision was based on making sure, first of all, I would not disappoint fans and myself. It is not fair to step inside the ring and not give my best," De La Hoya said.
On hand to give their support to De La Hoya were his wife Millie, business partner Richard Schaefer, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, his father Joel de la Hoya, Sr., AEG President and CEO Tim Leiweke and head of HBO pay per view Mark Taffet.
Taffet revealed to the audience a few stats of the Golden Boy franchise where Oscar appeared in HBO-televised fights a record 32 times, 19 of them pay-per-views and garnered the highest grossing pay per view of $120 million against Floyd Mayweather. De La Hoya had an overall total of 14.1 million buys and $696 million total revenue, "a record," Taffet said, "that probably can never be duplicated."
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