Playboy's 20Q: Oscar De La Hoya

The second son of Mexican immigrants, Oscar De La Hoya grew up in East Los Angeles. He was originally attracted to baseball, but he followed his older brother to the neighborhood gym and took part in boxing workouts. Discovering he had a powerful left hand, De La Hoya began winning local tournaments. At 19, he won a spot on the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games. He won a gold medal in his weight division.

He made his professional boxing debut in November 1992, leveling Lamar Williams in the first round. Eleven matches later, in 1994, De La Hoya won his first title, the World Boxing Organization junior lightweight belt, beating Denmark's Jimmi Bredahl. De La Hoya continued his climb, winning the lightweight title from Jorge Paez later in 1994, defeating Julio Cesar Chavez to capture the WBC superlightweight title in 1996 and besting Pernell Whitaker in 1997 for the WBC welterweight championship--his fourth weight-class crown. In 1999, after 31 straight victories, De La Hoya was dealt his first defeat when he lost a split decision to unbeaten IBF champion Felix Trinidad. In early 2000, De La Hoya won his sixth title--the IBF world championship that had been vacated when Trinidad moved up a weight class--by knocking out Derrell Coley in the seventh round. Later that year, De La Hoya dropped another split decision, to undefeated Shane Mosley in Los Angeles. His image tarnished for the first time, De La Hoya reevaluated his professional and personal lives, dropping Bob Arum, his promoter, and leaving his fiancée, Playmate Shanna Moakler.

At the age of 27, De La Hoya seemed to reach a crossroads. Having grossed $125 million in the ring and millions more in endorsements, he decided to take a break from boxing. In the fall of 2000, De La Hoya, inspired by his mother's love of music, released his first album of love songs in English and Spanish for EMI Latin, Oscar De La Hoya, which included the hit single Run to Me, a cover of the Bee Gees hit. He continued to donate millions of dollars to the children of East Los Angeles via the Oscar De La Hoya Foundation. He also helped a local hospital open a unit dedicated to awareness of breast cancer. He climbed back into the ring and defeated Arturo Gatti in Las Vegas in March 2001. After the fight, De La Hoya kept his promise to move up to the 154-pound weight class. A rematch with Shane Mosley on hold, De La Hoya rejoined Bob Arum's fold and announced he would fight Fernando Vargas for the WBA junior middleweight crown on May 4, 2002 in Las Vegas. Currently the WBC 154-pound champion, De La Hoya is guaranteed $14 million for the match.

Robert Crane caught up with the confident De La Hoya at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Crane reports: "Damn, he is so rich, so good-looking, such a great athlete, a fine singer, he's got babes, a posse, a $230,000 Ferrari, the love of an entire city. I wanted to hurt him bad, but I thought better of it. Instead, I punched the record button on my tape recorder."

1

[Q] Playboy: What is a Hoya?

[A] De La Hoya: A Hoya is a jewel. It's basically a diamond, it's an emerald. It's pretty special.

2

[Q] Playboy: Are you first among them?

[A] De La Hoya: Well, I think everybody in my family has had their little success stories. Mine is the one that's more visible, I guess. It runs in the family.

3

[Q] Playboy: Since you're a Hoya, do you get good seats at Georgetown games?

[A] De La Hoya: Do you know what? They sit me way in the back. I get a nosebleed. I've never had so many nosebleeds in my life. When I first went, I said, "Why are they giving me binoculars? What's the deal? Do they come with the ticket?"

4

[Q] Playboy: What kind of roadwork enhances your singing?

[A] De La Hoya: Running hilly roads. As I'm going up the hill, I'm trying to sing a high note, and then as I'm going down I'm trying to sing a low note. Once I get into the studio, I remember the hill, and I can belt out the highest note I have. It kind of helps.

5

[Q] Playboy: What are some examples of the expressions you see when you hit someone hard in the face?

[A] De La Hoya: I've seen an opponent freeze. I hit them, and they don't know what to do. I've seen an opponent cry. I've seen them get angry. That's pretty scary. It's also scary when I hit them with my hardest shot and they laugh. I think, Oh no, it's going to be a long night.

6

[Q] Playboy: Is your fighting based on reflex or intentionality on offense and defense?

[A] De La Hoya: It's based on reflex. When I'm training up in the mountains for three months before the fight, we work on certain moves we think will present themselves in the ring, and everything just falls in place when we're fighting. I'm not thinking of that certain move in the ring. It just happens instinctively. It's incredible because this person might be throwing a combination of three punches, and automatically I'll know how to block them. Sometimes I'll go back to the corner and say, "Oh my God. How did I do that?" Then you start thinking about the training. The three months of hard work just falls in place. I've found myself sometimes throwing a hard right hand to my opponent's face and he's also throwing one at the same time to my face, and he misses and I (continued on page 150) Oscar De La Hoya (continued from page 125) hit. I say to myself, How did that happen? We threw the same punch and we're making the same movement. We train to move, let's say, one inch to the left to miss that right hand and it just happens instinctively. If I didn't move that one inch I would get hit, but instincts take over.

7

[Q] Playboy: We hear there's a vulnerable spot between the fourth and fifth ribs. If you hit that area, it just blows the wind out of you. True?

[A] De La Hoya: There's a certain spot that maybe I shouldn't reveal because my next opponent may be reading this. But, yes, there is a certain spot that every fighter has that is weak, and it's the rib cage. Right in the middle, near the stomach, if you connect there at perfect speed and timing the guy won't stand up. It would be impossible for him to continue to fight. It's right below the solar plexus. You get hit there and it's over. It's a body part you cannot protect. We train to have an armored shield all around us. We hit our forearms on walls, we hit the punching bag with our fists, we do neck exercises, we do shoulder exercises. We train every part of the body, but you just cannot build up that spot. You cannot train it. It's always weak.

8

[Q] Playboy: Did anyone ever come to the ring dressed preposterously and you laughed?

[A] De La Hoya: Jorge Paez, he's the clown of boxing. That's what he's known for. His shorts are past his knees and they have 30 different colors. When I was looking at him across the ring, I couldn't help but laugh. You don't want to laugh right in his face or you don't want him to notice that you're laughing, so you're laughing inside and you're thinking, Oh my gosh. I'm going to fight this clown. That fight was funny because he came out like a clown and was joking and bouncing around. I knocked him out in the first few seconds of round two. It was funny because the way I knocked him out, he landed forward and did a whole turn. It was like a somersault. I was thinking, Is he joking around? He's dressed as a clown. Is he trying to be a clown, doing a somersault? But when I saw that he didn't get up for five minutes, I knew he was seriously hurt.

9

[Q] Playboy: Outside the ring, what kinds of robes and shorts do you wear?

[A] De La Hoya: Well, I actually go to the place where Hugh Hefner gets his robes. I love putting on my silk pajamas and slippers. A smoker's jacket. It's pretty cool. There's a shot of me in a smoking jacket at a pajama party at the Playboy Mansion.

10

[Q] Playboy: Do you have any advice for someone in a bar fight?

[A] De La Hoya: Run. Just run. You've got beer bottles flying around, you got the chairs. Just keep your hands up and if you can, run. I'm sure those bottles over the head hurt. I've never experienced one, but I'm pretty sure they hurt.

11

[Q] Playboy: Layer by layer, what's in your trunks?

[A] De La Hoya: In my trunks I wear a protective cup. You've got to protect the jewels. The Hoyas. That's it. You want to be as light as possible inside that ring. No secrets, none whatsoever.

12

[Q] Playboy: How good do you feel going into the ring?

[A] De La Hoya: I actually don't feel good at all going into the ring. I'm so nervous. I'm never scared, but I have butterflies in my stomach, and I have this feeling of getting cold and I start shaking. You have to feel good, because if you don't, then you start thinking, Did I train for the fight? Did I do enough rounds for the fight? Did I run enough miles? I've seen fighters postpone fights on the night of the fight--actually postpone or cancel them. You have to feel good. It's your life in the ring.

13

[Q] Playboy: Is there a place you don't like to get hit?

[A] De La Hoya: My face. I try to take care of my face as much as possible, especially my nose. You touch my nose and it's all over for you.

14

[Q] Playboy: When someone lands a great punch, do you get pissed?

[A] De La Hoya: Yeah. I start feeling fire all over my body. My eyes get red. I get angry, but you have to control that anger. Because if you're angry in the ring you won't win. As much as I want to be angry because they hit me, you have to keep your calm. You have to be collected, you have to be cool inside the ring. Anger works against you in the ring. You just start whaling away, and you throw your whole game plan away, and that's when it gets dangerous.

15

[Q] Playboy: We're told fighters shouldn't have sex before a fight. Do you?

[A] De La Hoya: I had a girlfriend a long time ago who I had sex with the night before a fight. Must have been my best performance ever--in the ring that is. And to this day my trainer doesn't believe it, my father doesn't believe it. She was there and I couldn't help it. And it was my best performance. I proved a lot of people wrong.

16

[Q] Playboy: Should Mike Tyson be allowed to box?

[A] De La Hoya: That's a toughie. I don't want him coming after me, because he would. Mike Tyson gives boxing a bad name. We all know that, but since we're in the land of opportunity you cannot take away a person's livelihood. But then again, you think of Tyson and you think of biting ears and eating children. So he's in such a tough position because people don't watch him now for his talent in the ring. They watch him because they want to see what crazy thing he'll do with his opponent. It's really sad because we grew up watching Mike Tyson as the destroyer, the champ. Over the years he has changed.

17

[Q] Playboy: In the age of AIDS, is the sight of blood cause for concern?

[A] De La Hoya: It's scary, because you worry about all the diseases out there. We have to get checked all the time--before a fight and after--but it still worries me. You never know what's out there. It also actually helps when you have somebody bleeding. You're so eager to have the fight stopped that it makes you throw more punches, and it makes you more aware. It makes you want to get away from the opponent so you won't get blood on yourself. I've found myself wanting to knock my opponent out very early or using the best defense of my life because I don't want that blood on me.

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[Q] Playboy: Ever had your knees buckle outside the ring?

[A] De La Hoya: Many times. That one night before my fight, my knees were buckling. Yeah, many times. I can't elaborate on that. I think that's the reason why all trainers say it's bad to have sex before a fight, because your knees buckle. They're right. They do buckle after you do the deed. I've never been in a street fight in my life. I've never had anybody punch me in the chin and my knees buckle or anything like that. Other than that night before the fight, my knees have been all right.

19

[Q] Playboy: Place Don King in the pantheon of boxing personalities. Is he a savior of the oppressed or a sewer rat?

[A] De La Hoya: Don King is a smart man for what he's doing. Every single fight of his, if you notice, is controversial. Yet he gets away with it. People still tune in to his fights. As he says, "only in America." Well, America has given him the opportunity and he's taken advantage of it. If it's in a corrupt way or an honest way, he still takes advantage. I don't praise what he's doing, but he's a smart businessman. That's all he is and that's all it is to him--a business.

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[Q] Playboy: Can you be both a lover and a fighter?

[A] De La Hoya: I've always been. I've always balanced it out.

When I hit them with my hardest shot and they laugh, I think, Oh no, it's going to be a long night.