{"id":352488,"date":"2026-01-04T23:46:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352488\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T23:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:46:06","slug":"oscar-de-la-hoya-says-one-mexican-fighter-is-1000-the-best-the-country-has-produced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352488\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar De La Hoya says one Mexican fighter is ‘1000%’ the best the country has produced"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Oscar De La Hoya<\/a>\u2019s mind, there is no debate over who stands as the greatest Mexican fighter of all time.<\/p>\n

De La Hoya, himself of Mexican heritage, proudly represented his roots throughout his career as East L.A.\u2019s \u201cGolden Boy\u201d. The 1992 Olympic gold medallist was a hugely popular figure and, before his controversial defeat to Felix Trinidad in 1999, had already captured world titles across four weight divisions.<\/p>\n

A year earlier, however, De La Hoya had shared the ring with a fighter in the latter stages of his career who, more than 20 years on, he would describe to FightHype<\/a> as the greatest Mexican boxer of all time.<\/p>\n

When it was put to him that Julio Cesar Chavez<\/a> was that man, De La Hoya replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree a thousand percent. If somebody\u2019s gonna tell me that there\u2019s somebody better than Julio Cesar Chavez, say it to my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only Salvador Sanchez could be considered a genuine rival to Chavez\u2019s legacy, but \u201cChava\u201d tragically lost his life aged just 23 on August 12, 1982.<\/p>\n

Chavez would go on to lose to De La Hoya when they met in 1998<\/a>, but the once-formidable, near-invincible champion was already 36 years old, with an 18-year career and more than 100 fights behind him.<\/p>\n

At the peak of his powers, El Gran Campe\u00f3n Mexicano demonstrated his immense popularity when he fought Greg Haugen in front of 132,247 fans<\/a> at the Estadio Azteca in 1993. The pride of Mexico won world titles at super-featherweight, lightweight and light-welterweight (now super-lightweight).<\/p>\n

He retired with a remarkable record of 115 fights, suffering just six defeats \u2014 four of which came in the final chapter of his career \u2014 alongside two draws and 85 knockouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Oscar De La Hoya\u2019s mind, there is no debate over who stands as the greatest Mexican fighter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-352488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}