GOLDEN BOY.....DOWN FOR THE COUNT

Oscar De La Hoya announces retirement
Boxing's 'Golden Boy' was the sport's biggest star for more than a decade.
Oscar De La Hoya, boxing's "Golden Boy" who capitalized on a stirring Olympic gold-medal performance in 1992 and then in his pro career captured the attention of millions with his rags-to-riches rise from East Los Angeles as he became the sport's most popular boxer, announced his retirement today.

"I'm announcing my retirement ... When I can't compete at my highest level, it's not fair -- to me, [or] my fans." De La Hoya, 36, said a news conference outside downtown's L.A. Live. "Knowing that you're never going to compete again is a tough decision but now I am looking forward to the future of boxing. When I cannot compete at this level, I have come to the conclusion that it is over."

De La Hoya lost two of his last three fights: a split-decision defeat at the hands of unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2007 that stands as the most lucrative event in boxing history; and December's one-sided loss to Filipino Manny Pacquiao that dropped De La Hoya's career record to 39-6 with 30 knockouts.

In his last bout, De La Hoya was beaten to the punch by the smaller, younger Pacquiao and De La Hoya watched his corner throw in the towel before the ninth round. Seconds later, De La Hoya approached his former trainer, Pacquiao's chief corner man, Freddie Roach, and said, "You were right, Freddie. I don't have it anymore."

But for many years, De La Hoya had it like no one else in boxing.

He caught America's imagination in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, becoming a darling of NBC not only because of his ring prowess and movie star-like looks, but because of the death-bed promise he had made to his breast-cancer stricken mother, Cecelia, two years earlier to bring a gold medal back from the Summer Games. By beating Germany's Marco Rudolph, he succeeded.

Pushed to boxing by his father, Joel, Oscar developed a style as a natural lefty that would prove dominant because of his wicked left hook, which routinely hammered foes, starting with his first-round KO of Lamar Williams in De La Hoya's 1992 pro debut at The Forum.

De La Hoya was marketed brilliantly by promoter Bob Arum, who took full advantage of the charming fighter's bilingual skills and Mexican-American appeal to a surging Latino population in the U.S.

"He was a gold-medal winner, had a very sympathetic story, was extremely good looking and articulate in both languages," Arum said. "With the Hispanic market becoming so huge and the attraction he had from women, we crossed him over to the general public very well."

Arum's matchmaker Bruce Trampler also orchestrated a master plan of pitting the "Golden Boy" against young fighters who could challenge him and teach him a ring lesson but not beat him. De La Hoya's rise also was mapped against older declining fighters like Genaro Hernandez, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez who gave him a name opponent and built his success as a celebrity in the ring.

Arum recalled seeing a New Yorker cartoon during that period in which two women of high society commented that their "ideal man" was a cross between Oscar De La Hoya and [clothing designer] Oscar de la Renta.

The boxer engaged in the excitement of his fast times.

In 1998, De La Hoya told The Times in an interview addressing his partying in Cabo San Lucas and Las Vegas gambling that he didn't always want to live up to the "Golden Boy's" squeaky clean image.

The story reported: Last spring, De La Hoya was spotted making nightly treks into a bar in Cabo . . . where he became publicly drunk, dancing on tables with half-clad females. He has been spotted at several casinos on the Las Vegas strip, gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars, a fact that has so concerned his promoter, Arum, and chief advisor, Mike Hernandez, that they have asked some casinos to put a limit on what De La Hoya can wager.

De La Hoya has five children with four women, but he's been married to Puerto Rican singer Millie Corretjer since 2001.

By 1999, De La Hoya's welterweight title showdown against fellow unbeaten Felix Trinidad became a record pay-per-view bout for a non-heavyweight fight. But it resulted in De La Hoya's first loss, blamed mostly on his strategy to backpedal through most of the final three rounds and protect a points lead, but Trinidad won the fight by decision.

De La Hoya finished 8-6 in his final 14 fights.

His finest victory during that period was an 11th-round TKO of Oxnard's Fernando Vargas in 2002, a triumph sweetened by Vargas' pre-fight taunts of De La Hoya and the loser's post-fight positive test for steroids.

De La Hoya, however, also lost twice to childhood foe Shane Mosley of Pomona in narrow decisions, he was knocked out by longtime middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, dropped a close decision to unbeaten Mayweather Jr. and then got dominated by Pacquiao in a welterweight bout that some - Mosley included - speculated had left De La Hoya's energy sapped by weight loss.

De La Hoya's latter years were marked by repeated changes in trainers. He left Robert Alcazar, and tried Emmanuel Steward, Floyd Mayweather Sr., Roach and "Nacho" Beristain.

The Pacquiao bout was De La Hoya's 19th with HBO and he closes his career with records in career pay-per-view buys (14.1 million) and total revenue ($696 million), said Mark Taffett of HBO pay-per-view. "It's been remarkable, a heck of a run," Taffett said.

The cash gave De La Hoya the power earlier this decade to split from Arum and form Golden Boy Promotions with his business partner Richard Schaefer. Golden Boy now promotes several elite boxers, including Mosley, Hopkins, England's Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez and rising stars Victor Ortiz and Robert Guerrero.

Former Times boxing writer Steve Springer, who documented most of De La Hoya's career, said the fighter "was a phenomenon. Good fight or bad fight, it didn't dissuade his fans. It was incredible."

De La Hoya "was the ultimate crossover fighter. Anglos, Hipanics, men, women -- they all loved him. He will be remembered for that, like Michael Jordan. Not just so much for the titles (10 in six weight divisions), but he was an incredible salesman for his sport," Springer said. "Over the past 10 years, Oscar saved the sport. I don't know what the sport would've become without him."