[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
- I've never told
anybody about my life,
about my emotions,
about the reality
of what really happened,
what has happened
in my life, how I feel.
These are my true emotions.
These are my feelings.
There's no f*cking
sugarcoating anything.
I'm just tired of it,
so I have to speak.
I have to say it out
loud to free myself.
That's the only way.
That's the only f*cking way
because the last 45 years
have been pretty dark.
[somber music]
- That's Oscar De La Hoya,
from East Los Angeles,
at 5 feet, 9 inches tall,
and just 19 years old.
He comes here without his
most ardent supporter.
Mom Cecilia died two years
ago from cancer at age 38.
- Before my mother passed away,
she told me she
wanted the gold medal.
- This is the gold medal fight.
I think everyone,
certainly in the U.S.,
knows the emotion
that Oscar De La Hoya
carries into the ring.
♪ ♪
- I wanted to trick
people into believing
that I'm the perfect
f*cking individual.
- The death of his
mother, promise made,
heck of a burden on
just a 19-year-old kid.
- The media created this person,
but I didn't know who I was.
- This is a family fight.
The entire De La Hoya family,
even back in East Los Angeles,
grandfather from Mexico
is there watching.
- He knows it's on the line.
- Oh!
Huge left hand.
- I'm different.
I'm not like you.
I'm not like a lot of people.
[cheers and applause]
- East Los Angeles
is now on the edge
of their collective chairs.
Oscar De La Hoya has kept
the promise to his mother.
- Oscar De La Hoya, he not
only brought home the gold,
he brought honor to
his mom's memory.
- Everyone thought they knew me.
It was just all a lie
because that's what I do.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
But the truth always comes out.
♪ ♪
[police siren wailing]
I grew up in an apartment.
About 4:00 in the morning, my
father would kick the door.
And that was my
call. That's my call.
You got to wake
up. Time to run.
[tense music]
At ten years old,
I was on a mission.
I've already been
programmed to be a fighter.
♪ ♪
Running through the streets
of East LA was dangerous.
First of all, you don't
have the right shoes on,
so you can hear the
pavement just pounding.
You're in the neighborhood
where people are still up,
partying, and there's gangs.
And you're hoping that
somebody doesn't run out
and grab you, or
punch you, or hit you.
One time, I see these dogs.
And all of a sudden, one barks.
And then all of them
just come straight at me,
and I climbed the
cemetery fence.
So I remember just hanging on,
with my hands just being bloody.
[dogs barking]
Walking up the block
back to my house,
I would hear this angelic voice.
- [singing in Spanish]
- It was my mother singing.
- [singing in Spanish]
- She would be cooking for
me and singing Spanish songs.
She used to sing with
a lot of passion.
It's almost like
if you're crying.
- [singing in Spanish]
- Listening to my mother
sing, I always felt safe.
It's a beautiful thing to
listen to when you're a kid
and all you want is a hug.
- [singing in Spanish]
[choir softly vocalizing]
- We were friends, but
when we got together,
we never really talked
about the boxing.
We just talked about having fun.
We talked about, you know,
"Hey, I have a dollar.
Let's go to the store."
Because we were always starving,
and we were always broke.
My very first
experience with boxing
was watching the Olympics, 1984.
Paul Gonzales,
boxer from East LA,
was competing for
the gold medal.
- Paul Gonzales
won the gold medal.
And so I thought to myself,
I want to be that hero
for my city, for East LA.
I had an Olympic poster
of the little mascot
holding little boxing
gloves, and I signed it,
"Oscar De La Hoya,
Olympic Champion."
My first autograph that I
had ever given was to myself.
That's when I
knew, OK, you know,
I'm fighting for something.
You know, I have a
goal. I have a vision.
[school bell ringing]
- We were in the sixth grade,
and our teacher gave
us an assignment,
what you want to be
when you grow up?
Kids went up. "I
want to be a doctor."
Another one went up and said,
"I want to be a dentist."
So then Oscar went up,
and he said that he wanted
to be an Olympian, and
he was going to win
the gold medal as a boxer.
And he was going to be
champion of the world.
We laughed out loud.
[somber music]
- All the kids just
started laughing.
I'm this shy kid.
It devastated me.
What are you laughing at?
But the person who laughed
the most was my teacher.
[laughter]
I'm being serious.
This is my dream.
But it became a nightmare.
♪ ♪
I told myself, I'm
gonna show you.
♪ ♪
You're gonna respect me.
♪ ♪
- The teacher kept
him after class.
And I went back, peered
through the window.
♪ ♪
He was crying.
♪ ♪
- Ladies and gentlemen,
as we start our descent
into Los Angeles, please
make sure your seat backs...
[percussive music]
- When we landed, they opened
the doors to the airplane.
There's people everywhere.
And I'm looking at
the stewardess like,
oh, my God, who
are they here for?
And she's like,
"They're here for you."
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
People asking for
autographs, taking pictures.
Girls are screaming.
My life just changed completely,
right there in that moment.
♪ ♪
The world fell in
love with my story.
And I felt it.
I felt like a celebrity.
I felt like a star.
♪ ♪
- When he came back from
the Olympics, I was ten.
I was just overwhelmed
because there was
so much media and
people cheering for him.
And at one point, I was
just like, what's going on?
Like, why is everybody
cheering for my brother?
- There's a caravan of
cars going back to East LA,
the News, Channel 7, Channel 4.
♪ ♪
People were waiting for
me outside of my house.
♪ ♪
And I wasn't that
shy boy anymore.
I wasn't that kid that
is gonna turn red.
I instantly played the part.
I'm representing
East Los Angeles.
- Yeah!
- I'm representing
Latin Americans,
and I'm representing Mexicans.
- Yeah.
- The best part of East
LA, Oscar De La Hoya!
[cheering]
♪ ♪
- Everybody loved me.
♪ ♪
- When I got home, all I can
think about was my mother.
[indistinct chatter]
And I wanted to have
a moment to just...
To feel it all, you know?
But I couldn't.
- He's won our hearts recently
when he fulfilled a promise
to his mom to win the
Olympic gold medal.
Please welcome Oscar De La Hoya.
[cheers and applause]
[triumphant music]
♪ ♪
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
Congratulations on
the gold medal there.
Boy, that's... can I...
- Sure, of course.
- That's my second one
there I've touched.
We had Mark on the other
day. Boy, that's...
- Yeah, kind of heavy.
- Oh, yeah, you get
back trouble if you
wear that too long, yeah.
And you were... you went to the
White House yesterday, right?
- Yes, we went to
the White House
and had a great time there.
- Oh, yeah?
- I went to the restroom,
and it was like...
I mean, to be seated on the
seat where George Bush sits...
[laughter]
- He was an excellent guest.
He was human.
And you know, that
connection with his mom
gave him a real empathy.
It made him vulnerable
but tougher.
[soft music]
- It was instant celebrity,
instant pride from everyone.
He belonged to East
LA. He did it for us.
- Now I'm like a
local celebrity,
and I'm in shock.
I was walking around with
my gold medal around my neck
everywhere I went.
People would recognize
me, and they would ask me,
oh, my God, where's
your gold medal?
And I would just pull
it out. It's right here.
♪ ♪
My mother was my... Is
my biggest boxing fan.
And I mean, unfortunately,
she passed away.
And the way we made
the promise together
about me winning the gold
medal years before...
I mean, when I started boxing,
she used to cheer
me on all the time.
And now the promise I made,
I fulfilled my dreams,
and I really can't have
anything more in life.
- Oh, that's great.
- For a few days after
getting back from Barcelona,
I finally went to her
grave to talk to her.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
I accomplished my mom's
dream. I have my gold medal.
♪ ♪
But now I have promoters
calling our home,
managers putting pressure.
I felt that burden.
And I was like, I don't know.
I don't know if I
want to do this.
♪ ♪
I want to live this lifestyle
that I have in East LA,
little celebrity.
But at the same time,
I did not want to
disappoint my father.
- I didn't know how
to talk to my father
to tell him how I
felt, and keep in mind,
it was supposed to be
my brother, not me.
♪ ♪
- I used to use him
as a Guinea pig.
[laughs] You know?
I used to love playing baseball.
And I used to use
him as a catcher.
You know, he hated
it, but I used
to drag him out into the
driveway behind the gate
and make him catch tennis
ba*ls or whatever we had.
I used to make him cry because
he didn't want to do it,
but I had to practice, right?
I was kind of like the
bully around the block.
- Joel was a cool guy.
He started getting
into punk rock music.
He started buying all these
shirts with bands on them.
So Oscar thought
it was cool to wait
till his brother went to school,
and then we would
get his shirts.
Hey, yo, wear this
one. This one's cool.
- And all of a sudden,
I f*cking feel a big hit
right in my leg,
like a Charley horse.
Boom. Oh, sh*t.
And it's my brother,
and he's like,
"Take that f*cking shirt
off. That's my shirt."
And my buddy, Eric, he
just like took off running.
I wanted to be like
my older brother.
- I started boxing
before he did,
and he started following me.
- I would be curious,
like, where is he going?
He was going to a boxing gym.
♪ ♪
And he was good,
like really good.
♪ ♪
I'm thinking, wow,
my dad's so into him.
- I loved being in the gym.
I loved chingasos, beating
the sh*t out of someone.
But I was hot and cold.
I was off and on with the sport.
One of my uncles
gave me a motorcycle,
bought me a motorcycle,
a small Yamaha 80
because I was
threatening to quit.
He really thought I was going
to become this great boxer,
but I just hated
running in the mornings.
My dad used to give me crap
about that all the time.
- When my father was a kid,
his father tied him up
to a tree with chains
and would whip him if
they didn't want to go up
and herd the cows
at 12:00 midnight.
- By all means, he was
gonna try to get me
to do what he thought
I was excellent at.
I didn't have the heart for it.
- One day I come
home from school,
and that motorcycle, it's gone.
My dad sold it.
- So I was my dad's last resort.
- Every time we
would congregate,
you know, the uncles
would have beers,
and they would get drunk,
and out come the gloves.
When they call my
name, I'm just frozen.
Like, I have to fight?
Like, what is this?
And then... [impact]
Punched in the face,
then I start crying.
Instinctively, I
run to my father.
But my father told me, be tough.
- And then he tells
everybody, "You watch.
"In a few months, I'm gonna
take him to a boxing gym.
"And just give me a few months.
"We'll be back right
here at the same place,
and he's gonna get revenge."
♪ ♪
I remember walking
into the boxing gym,
but with a new perspective.
And I'm thinking to
myself, this is my chance.
My first trainer asked me
to get in a boxing stance.
Since I was
left-handed, my instinct
was to stand like this.
But it was too difficult for
him to train me that way,
so he said, "Why don't
we just switch you over?"
♪ ♪
So now my power
punch is the leader.
Converting myself
into a regular stance
changed my destiny.
At six years old, I had
my first amateur fight.
I had no gear, no nothing,
so I put on my brother's shoes,
which were like
four sizes bigger.
The boots would
flap up on the tip.
I had huge tube socks.
The shorts looked like a skirt.
The gloves were so big.
I mean, I looked
like a little clown.
But now I'm a fighter.
[bell rings]
[dramatic music]
I win my fight, and I
get out of the ring,
and one of my uncles hands
me over like 50 cents.
And I'm like,
whoa, what is this?
♪ ♪
50 cents, like, now I can
f*cking buy whatever I want.
Get me a pack of Starburst,
and you feel like
you're on top of the world.
If I keep winning, I
can be the cool kid
with a few quarters
in my pocket.
Huh.
Started knocking kids out.
And for the first
time in my life,
people were telling me,
"You did good, mijo.
You did good. You know,
we're proud of you."
- Number one! East Side!
- Wow, OK.
I love this feeling.
- Ladies and gentlemen, your
winner is Oscar De La Hoya.
[cheers applause]
♪ ♪
- But my father would always
expect me to do better.
♪ ♪
My father, when I get
home from training,
he tells me what I did wrong,
and how I should throw
right hands for more power,
and the left hook
for more power.
It's also in the family.
My grandfather boxed,
and my father also boxed.
So I guess it's my
turn to do the job.
I was innocent, naive.
I wasn't exposed yet to
the dark side of boxing.
My father, he was
orchestrating everything,
and managers and promoters
would have to go through him.
- They promised me
a million dollars,
a brand-new car,
a brand-new home.
But then my father told
them, we need Bob Arum.
He was the messiah of boxing.
This man promoted Muhammad Ali.
- Pay-per-view will be the
coming force in boxing,
not network television.
That's gonna be a
thing of the past.
- He knows everything
there is to know
about making a world
champion, making him popular,
making him a lot of money.
[birds cawing]
- I was at my home on the beach.
These two fellows
that I knew in boxing,
fringe sort of guys,
Steve Nelson and
Robert Mittleman,
asked to come to see me.
They were about to
sign an agreement
to manage Oscar De La Hoya.
But Oscar's father, Joel,
told these two fellas
he wouldn't allow
them to be managers
unless Top Rank, my company,
agreed to promote Oscar
because I had promoted
the four kings,
Hagler, and Leonard,
and Tommy Hearns,
and Roberto Duran.
So Oscar really did
not resonate with us,
other than the fact that
it was a good story,
the fact that his
mother had died,
that he had dedicated
the gold medal to her.
And I told them that I
was prepared to do it.
Mittleman was so excited,
with all his clothes,
he ran and jumped
into the water.
[upbeat music]
- I was a contract publicist,
and I worked for
entertainment clients.
I got a call from Bob Arum.
And he said, "Hey, I'm
meeting with this fighter."
I said, "Oh,
Oscar De La Hoya."
Everybody knew Oscar because
he just won the gold.
He came back to Los Angeles.
This is where he was from.
So I said, "Absolutely.
I know sports PR."
Well, that was a lie. I
didn't know any sports.
But he had a great look to him.
He had something golden.
- I always get nervous.
- My job was to create
his public image.
Make sure you smile. Make
sure you sit upright.
Because you want to
embrace the public.
He was a natural, though.
I said, well, Oscar, we need
to get a biography for you.
So we're gonna go
do a photo sh**t.
A week later, we did a
spread in "Harper's Bazaar."
When I told Bob Arum, "You
are not gonna believe this.
Oscar's going to be in
'Harper's Bazaar, '"
Bob looked at me, and he
was like, "Are you kidding?
I don't want 'Harper's Bazaar.'
I want 'Sports Illustrated.'"
I was like, seriously?
This is "Harper's Bazaar."
Women saw Oscar in
a fashion magazine.
That moment is when I realized
that Oscar was not
just a sports figure,
but he was going to
be more than that.
- In the beginning of my career,
my team was my
brother and my father.
- I started working with him
as a camp manager,
assistant coach.
- My trainer was Robert Alcazar,
who was my dad's
friend from work.
Nelson and Mittleman
were my managers,
and Bob Arum was my promoter.
And that was Team De La Hoya.
They laid out a plan for me.
We had press conferences
in several cities.
I'm gonna train in Big
Bear, fight every month.
We had one missing piece,
and that was my nickname.
- Fighting out of
the red corner,
he is making his
professional debut...
- I had the golden looks...
- Really needing no
introduction to you...
- The golden left hook...
- The pride of East LA...
- The golden story,
and the gold medal
around my neck.
We all thought, wow, that's it.
- Welcome to the
ring, the Golden Boy!
- You want me as a golden
boy? All right, here you go.
Let's go.
- The Golden Boy opens up
in dramatic fashion!
- It was really loud,
but the screaming
was a higher pitch.
It was tons, and tons,
and tons of women.
♪ ♪
And people had signs, "I love
you, Oscar," with big hearts.
That's not a boxing match.
That's like a concert.
- He knocked out...
- Oh!
- Right there is a left
hand right on the buzzer.
It's all over!
They stop the fight
in the first round.
- He attracted people
who were not into sports.
- Oscar De La Hoya
has the potential
of being the most popular
fighter since Muhammad Ali.
When I saw the
reaction of women,
it then rang a bell what a
tremendous fan base there was.
So we arranged thousands
of women going crazy,
holding up signs,
"Marry me, Oscar."
Once you're able to
start that little fire,
and it catches on, it's like,
boom, and it goes by itself.
It was great for business.
- Hicks is wobbly.
Down from a right hand.
- They're gonna be
short for a while
because Oscar De La
Hoya is gonna whack out
these guys in the beginning.
- If De La Hoya is as
good as he thinks he is,
show us, and show us
against good fighters,
not just tomato
cans and old men.
- After ten fights,
my team thought
I was ready for a world title.
So I fought for my
first world title
at the Olympic Auditorium.
My father fought there,
and my grandfather fought there.
- The Golden Boy is on the verge
of becoming a household name.
Oscar De La Hoya has a chance
to win his first
world championship.
- People expect a lot from me.
The pressure is on from my
family and everybody else.
- And the doctor
here says, enough.
[crowd roaring]
- So Oscar gets his TKO.
- De La Hoya is a young man
with tremendous ambition.
- Of course, my father
was always pushing me,
but the person who's
really pushing me hard
inside of me is my mom.
When I step inside the ring
and the referee calls us,
I try not to look at
my opponent's eyes.
What I do is look up in the sky
because it's as
if I can feel her,
and she's looking at
me, and my mother's
taking care of me.
[soft music]
My mom, she lived a tough life.
She had to cross the
border at 14 years old
by herself because
she wants to sing.
And then she ends up
working at a zipper factory.
Talk about the
American dream, huh?
- In Mexican society,
because being Mexican
is so intertwined
with Catholicism,
women are not allowed to be full
and real human
beings or real women.
There were only
three types of women.
You were either the
virgencita, the virgin,
and then you got married,
and then you became a mother.
And if you weren't a
virgin and a mother,
then you were a wh*re.
You don't want to
be known as a wh*re
because if you're a wh*re,
then no man's gonna marry you
because men need
to marry virgins
because if you're not a virgin,
then you can't get married
and become a mother, which
is your ultimate goal.
And it's a very rigid way
that women are controlled
by Catholicism, by
society, by the patriarchy.
So when you tell your
parents, no, I'm a writer,
or I'm a singer, I'm a
dancer, they're like,
what's the value in that?
- When immigrant parents
abandon their dreams,
the expectation is, you're
going to do better than us,
and you have to
do better than us
because otherwise,
why all the sacrifice?
- Since I was a kid,
I never felt like
people loved me for
who I really am inside.
I was Oscar the commodity.
♪ ♪
- Family members would
buy me boxing equipment.
"Hey, do you need gloves?
I'll buy them for you.
"You're gonna be the one, dude.
"You're gonna take us
out of this lifestyle.
You're the one."
It's a lot of pressure.
♪ ♪
There came a point where I
was missing a lot of school
because I was training
for the Olympics.
But there was this one class.
I just loved painting and art.
Plus, the teacher was
like my best friend.
He would take the time
to just talk to me,
and encourage me, and bring
out whatever passion I had.
♪ ♪
Anybody who tried
to encourage me
or just put a little effort,
I would like cling onto.
Turn around like that.
A little bit more.
It relaxes me. It
relaxes the mind.
It takes me away from all
the pressure from boxing
and from everybody around me.
- Oscar, I think you
should stick to boxing.
- [laughs]
[cheers and applause]
- The beginning of my career,
I was selling out arenas.
- And De La Hoya comes
out with a strong right
to start things off.
De La Hoya really
getting that jab.
- Another left hook
knockdown for De La Hoya.
- I was winning
these major fights.
- Five, six, seven!
- I would make him
a favorite right now
against just about any other
lightweight in the world.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- So I'm in Vegas after a fight,
and I'm looking for a motel
that my managers had arranged.
And it's like two miles
away from the strip.
It was not a good
site, that's for sure.
The manager of the motel
recognizes me and tells me,
"What are you doing here?
This is like a sh*thole."
Wow.
Hmm.
Very first contract I signed,
I didn't receive
the million dollars.
I was supposed to
receive a brand-new car.
I got like a... I don't
know, beat up something.
I don't know what
the hell it was.
The home that they promised
me on contract was leased.
I went to the bank,
and I asked, like,
"How much do I
have in the bank?"
"Oh, Mr De La Hoya, you have
roughly $12,000 to your name."
$12,000? Ooh, sh*t, OK.
Let's f*cking... let's take
the bull by the horns now,
and let's make some changes.
- Oscar's father, Joel,
arranged to fire the managers.
And as Oscar's promoter,
I thought that was
a great decision.
- You know, once we got
rid of the managers,
my father told me, like, yeah,
go to this local Chevrolet
in Montebello called Camino Real
and meet this man who was an
owner of a car dealership.
He was like a friend
of the family.
My father knew him. He
was very business savvy.
And he started asking
questions like,
"Hey, do you have
representation?
"Do you have somebody
looking out for you?
And, oh, by the way, I just
got rid of some people."
That were trying
to f*ck me over.
And typical car salesman,
he convinced me
to be my manager,
telling me, "I don't
believe in contracts
because my word is
everything, you know?"
I'm like, oh, sh*t, this
guy seems kind of cool.
And all of a sudden,
money was just coming in.
I would go straight to
the bank, get it on cash.
And they would try
to convince me,
"No, don't have it in
cash. Keep it in here."
You know, the money will
grow, and the rates are, like,
super high right now,
and this and that.
I didn't care.
I'm like, what the
f*ck is that, you know?
Just give me my cash.
- Once Hernandez came in,
he turned everything around
as far as Oscar's
personal finances
and put him on the right track.
- Money changes everything.
Money changes everybody.
I thought that, as
long as I keep winning,
you can't tell me no.
♪ ♪
You can't deny me.
If I want to get inside
a club or restaurant,
whatever, it's like, I'm Oscar
De La Hoya, the Golden Boy,
and I have money.
- Another left hook.
- For the first time,
everybody around me
had no choice but to say yes.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
Oh, yeah, the money's nice.
No, it was fricking great.
As a kid, like, I want more.
I'm feeling like I deserve more.
I'm freaking greedy now.
And I go back to Vegas.
Now we're staying
in a major hotel,
double glass windows, and
looking out the Strip.
I'm thinking, this
is where I belong.
♪ ♪
- Why would he take a fight
against a tough champion
like John John
Molina at this stage?
- For the million bucks or
more he's getting tonight,
he had to finally fight
a big-time opponent.
[bell rings]
- Molina has succeeded
in changing the style
of the fight to a brawl
and has given De
La Hoya everything
he can handle for the
past five or six rounds.
- The John John Molina fight
was probably the first fight
where my trainer
was over his head.
- [speaking Spanish]
- The instructions he
would give me were just...
I couldn't understand.
- What do you think, George?
Is Oscar gonna listen
to those instructions
from Robert Alcazar?
- Every time you cross
tie the m*therf*cker,
you win the fight already, OK?
- He's babbling, and I'm
waiting for instructions.
- Well, use the experience.
Use the experience.
- I realize, everybody
has their limits
of how much you can teach me.
- Oscar De La Hoya's first
12-round route-going
performance.
[bell rings]
[crowd roaring]
- Alcazar was a good
amateur trainer,
but he didn't have the gravitas
that certain trainers had.
- I know what I can do. I
know what I can accomplish.
But I fought a very
unintelligent fight.
I needed somebody else to
take me to another level.
- Chávez was a Mexican icon.
He had a great personality.
And in boxing, a guy has
to have a personality
as well as ability.
- Presenting the
three-time World Champion,
Julio César Chávez!
- I am the official trainer.
Mr. Roberto, he's my assistant.
- Roberto just detested him.
He just didn't want
anything to do with Jesus.
As a matter of fact,
they were asking Roberto,
"No, who's... what's
he doing here?"
"Oh, he's just
sweeping the gym."
- Then it could be
an interesting fight.
But I don't think he will.
I hope... oh, there he is.
- There he goes.
A great left hook.
- You're looking at
a world of talent
for a world champion
right there.
It all happened fast.
- And we just
connected instantly.
He would teach me about life,
and philosophy, and
classical music.
He would teach me about wines,
Shakespeare, and passion.
- We got along
great. We would talk.
We'd have these
great conversations
about religion or lack thereof.
He was an atheist.
My dad's very religious..
My dad was thinking
that, you know,
he was putting stuff
into Oscar's head.
- The problem with Rivera,
he was just a
dyed-in-the-wool communist.
He was like you had Karl
Marx in the training camp.
♪ ♪
The camps went on for like
two months before a fight,
and they were all living
in the same place.
The father couldn't tolerate
somebody constantly talking
against religion, against God.
For me, it was hilarious.
- I felt I became
a different person.
I felt I grew. I felt
I was becoming better.
I felt I was becoming
bigger, like up here.
- There's De La Hoya.
You see him up on his
toes more than we've
seen him before, with a
little bit more movement.
- Something just clicked.
He made me think more.
- De La Hoya making
himself an elusive target.
- He changed me to be
a beautiful fighter.
- Right hand uppercut.
Hernandez is wobbled.
- Somebody just has to
give me some attention,
give me some confidence,
give me that encouragement,
and I will do whatever it takes.
- Right hand to the
body, sets up the flurry.
De La Hoya landing on the ropes.
- The best thing that can
ever happen to my career
was hiring the Professor.
And then we'd announce that
I was gonna fight Chávez.
- You list him as
one of your idols.
Has it hit you yet that you're
really close to fighting him?
And what does it mean to you?
- Well, I knew it all
along that maybe one day,
we can go at it, Julio
César Chávez and myself.
I've always dreamed
about that fight,
and now my dream is
gonna become true,
fighting the legend,
fighting the great champion,
fighting the people's
idol, and I can't wait.
I'm looking forward to it.
Chávez, he's just like
a badass son of a b*tch.
[dramatic music]
But I mean, sh*t,
he was so brutal.
♪ ♪
The guy can take a punch.
♪ ♪
When he fought Meldrick Taylor,
he was getting pummeled on.
He was getting beat
up the whole fight.
♪ ♪
But there's no quit in Chávez.
And he knocks him out
in the last ten seconds
of the last round
to win the fight.
That's who Chávez was.
Like, he never gave up.
- One can say that Chávez was
more authentic than Oscar.
But Chávez had a
crude side to him.
We cautioned Oscar
against the crudeness
because we wanted
Oscar to appeal
to the greater American
Anglo audience.
- I respect the Mexican culture.
My parents are Mexican.
All my family is Mexican.
And I'm proud of
having Mexican blood.
But I'm proud that I was
born here in the U.S. of A,
you know, the land
of opportunities.
[dramatic music]
So I take up golf, and
now Mexican Americans
are talking about, well,
you're not one of us
because you were born
here in the U.S.,
and you're playing golf,
and you're hanging out
with the white folks.
Your skin's lighter.
You're pretty.
Look at the way
you're trying to talk.
I'm just here, taking it
easy, having a good time.
You're not Mexican enough.
♪ ♪
- He's very palatable and
accessible to white people.
He's a nonthreatening
Mexican, right?
Right, so Oscar De La Hoya
fits this role of like,
oh, you're not a scary Mexican.
You're not like an
Indigenous-looking Mexican
that I see at Home Depot.
- Latino men have to be tough.
They have to have
a certain demeanor,
that macho type of guy.
You wear your
sombrero, and you have
to act as tough as you can.
You have to have
that image of macho.
You know, most of the fans felt
that I didn't have
that machismo.
♪ ♪
- As we're starting to really
promote that Chávez fight,
we started a press tour.
We had two planes.
Oscar was on one, and
Chávez was on the other.
26 cities in about 15
days, we had one day off.
♪ ♪
We'd do a press
conference in the morning.
We'd fly to another city.
We'd do a press
conference there.
Sometimes it was on the tarmac.
We'd fly to another
city, sleep over,
get up the next morning,
and do the press conference.
And it was like that
the entire time.
So sometimes, we'd
do three in a day.
- Wherever I would go,
people are telling me,
oh, he's gonna kick your a*s,
and you're not ready for him.
- I had to prove something
to a whole culture,
to our people.
I mean, I've never been
so focused in my life.
Everything was calculated,
my food intake, the calories,
lights out at 8:00
p.m., no matter what,
lights back on at
4:00 a.m. to go run.
And Chávez, he would
just be stumbling in
from partying or something.
And I was like, wow, I might
have an advantage here.
[indistinct chatter]
Once we get to
Vegas, we see Chávez
brought out the horde of fans.
I mean, it was crazy.
- Chávez number one.
- Chávez.
- Chávez!
- Chávez.
- Numero uno.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Being booed makes
you want to just prove
that you can rise
to the occasion.
♪ ♪
- What about looking out
through this enormously
cruel Chávez crowd?
Could that have an effect
on young De La Hoya?
- I get up on the
ring, and I see him.
And I said, holy sh*t.
I'm really fighting Chávez.
[crowd chanting]
- Chávez's fans
trying to rally him,
chanting México, México, México.
- I kind of like shook it off,
like, you have to do your job.
I felt something happen in me
that was like tunnel vision.
- De La Hoya says he's in
the best shape of his life.
Chávez says he's
in the best shape
since his dramatic comeback
win over Meldrick Taylor.
- I thought, this is
my moment to make sure
that people know
who I really am.
My jab was lethal.
And I remember hitting him.
And I cut him open.
There was so much blood.
♪ ♪
After that, my confidence grew.
I was pushing him back.
♪ ♪
I felt I was getting
into the rhythm.
♪ ♪
And just gliding and moving,
I felt I was
floating in the ring.
♪ ♪
You can hit me with
a sledgehammer,
and you cannot take me down.
[crowd roaring]
- Chávez getting in
a left hook in close.
And he brings the crowd
out of their seats
as he tries to mount the attack.
- I was showing you
that I can take it.
I was showing you
that I'm macho.
I was showing you that
I can be a man up there.
- Good short left
hook by De La Hoya.
And he comes back
with a right hand.
And the blood bothering Julio,
as De La Hoya lands
a vicious left hook.
Now his nose is bleeding too.
It's been all Oscar De La Hoya.
- I'm starting to think,
wow, this can be like
the changing of the guard.
♪ ♪
- Cortez takes Chávez
to Flip Homansky.
- The fight...
- That's it.
- The fight is over.
- The winner, by
technical knockout,
winning his fourth
world title belt,
and new WBC Super Lightweight
Champion of the
World, the Golden Boy,
Oscar De La Hoya!
[crowd roaring]
♪ ♪
- Nobody gave me the
credit that I deserved,
the respect.
It haunted me.
♪ ♪
- Sponsorships,
press conferences,
tours everywhere, interviews,
magazines, commercial shoots.
- Call Cablevision today.
- The fights were
easy to promote.
- Save up your dollars
and dimes, so you can
buy pay-per-view because
it's gonna be a good one.
- He would be on a talk
show and plug himself.
"You know what, you can
watch me on pay-per-view."
- He spoke beautifully both
in English and in Spanish.
- I'd like to introduce
to you, the Golden Boy.
[cheers and applause]
- Women went crazy about him.
♪ ♪
- He took care of us.
He bought our first
house in Montebello.
- Yay.
- Shut up.
After our mom passing,
we grew a lot closer.
I was like his wingman.
Like, I was always with him,
like, when he goes on dates,
or he's just going out.
He'll take me shopping.
I felt so close to him.
I felt like, oh, my God,
like, we're doing it.
Like, we're gonna build
a relationship here.
Until he moved into Bel Air.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- As an adult, I
realize everything
that I did miss out on as a kid.
Like, there's no
childhood whatsoever.
What childhood?
And now that I have
time to realize it,
it's like, OK, let me
act out on it right now.
That sense of power,
it was such a rush.
Once you head down that
road, it's really difficult
to make a U-turn
because you're just
so immersed in that chaos.
- What everybody is seeing was
still the Golden Boy image.
- Even though I have
this money, and the fame,
and glory, you know, I'm always
gonna be the same person.
- But that's not reality.
[cheering]
♪ ♪
- No, keep going. No, no.
- Whoo!
- No, no, no, no, no, go.
- You know, things that were
happening were maybe not OK.
He would make me a
nervous heart attack.
- No.
- Let's invite a few in.
- No, no, no, no, no.
♪ ♪
- I was in high school,
and he asked me
to stay with him.
He's like, oh, you know,
come spend some time with me.
But I hardly saw Oscar.
He was just always out
and about or partying.
He was this different person
that I've never saw before.
The day I left, I don't
even think he was there.
So I remember writing
a letter to him.
I just spilled everything
on that letter, you know,
how I was feeling,
the depression I
was going through,
and how I wish we were closer.
And I remember handing off that
letter to one of his friends.
I doubt he gave it to him.
And I was so
crushed and so hurt.
I had so much love for him,
but I felt like I lost him.
♪ ♪
- I said to myself,
everything is gonna be OK
as long as I keep winning.
- Let's get it on!
- Pernell Whitaker was the
best fighter pound for pound
in the world at the time.
♪ ♪
- That could have been
scored a knockdown.
- That is a knockdown.
That is a knockdown.
- It is a knockdown.
- It's a knockdown.
- Sure enough, a left
hook just clocked me.
[crowd roaring]
- Great flurry by De La
Hoya to end the tenth.
- I barely won the fight.
♪ ♪
- You were unable to really do
what you do best against him,
and really to impose your
youth and strength on him.
You feel it wasn't an Oscar
De La Hoya performance?
- Well, I'm frustrated because
I know I can do much better.
- Within two weeks, the
man whom Oscar called
the Professor was let go.
But is Oscar dodging the
blame when he doesn't
have a golden performance?
- He was the best
trainer that I've had,
but I always trusted
everybody in my circle.
I should have been more
involved in my business,
in my livelihood, in my life.
- De La Hoya trying
to throw a left hook,
and missing with it.
But he lands a left hook and
momentarily stuns Camacho.
De La Hoya sends...
- I didn't have the capability
at the time to realize,
to recognize that
family is important...
♪ ♪
That close friends
are important,
that loved ones are important.
- Right hand lands
for De La Hoya.
- I didn't want to see
anything that was good for me.
- And that's thunder.
That is big stuff.
- I distanced myself from
the ones I most love.
- Left uppercut.
- Great combination.
- I was in my own
world, where, you know,
I'm gonna have a good
time, I'm gonna win,
I'm gonna train hard,
I'm gonna fight,
but this is my world.
- Time to get out of there.
- Yeah, that's
what he's gonna do.
- Fighting, that was my escape
from the pain...
- Uppercut slams into Camacho.
- Ever since I was a kid.
♪ ♪
My first thoughts
of my childhood
are just being afraid...
Of being afraid and pain,
crying, anger.
I remember we were
playing stickball,
and sometimes, the ball
would go into the street.
So one time, I swung and missed,
and I just
instinctively ran out,
not looking both
ways, not thinking.
And a car is coming so fast.
It just screeches to a halt.
[tires screeching]
And I end up in the
bottom of the f*cking car.
And everybody is like,
"Oh, my gosh, he's dead.
Oh, my, little Oscar."
For some miraculous
reason, I was untouched.
I can see my mom
running down the street.
I'm waiting for my mother
to, like, give me a hug.
And I mean, first
thing she does is just,
you know, hits me,
beats the crap out of me.
♪ ♪
I remember times
when I would cry,
and then she would tell me,
"Well, you really want to cry?"
Then, boom, here you go.
I'm gonna give you
something to cry about.
I never saw my mother hit
my brother or my sister.
It was me who would
always get hit.
She was hitting me so
much, she started crying.
And she was angry,
and she started crying
because I wasn't reacting to it.
I was just numb at that point.
Nothing hurt me anymore.
I was just like, OK, you're
gonna hit me, go ahead.
It's not hurting me anymore.
My soul is out of
my f*cking body.
But I hated it when she
hit me. I f*cking hated it.
It was the worst.
It was the worst.
♪ ♪
But I had an outlet.
When I would step
inside the ring,
I remember picturing
my mom's face
on my opponent and
just unleashing.
♪ ♪
- When you were a child, if
you had an a*usive mother,
you have to play this
game in order to survive.
And then as an adult,
you think, oh, it's over.
But if you've had
to survive that way,
it's very hard to give up
your survival strategies.
And there's outlets
that people use to deal
with their pain and suffering.
Nobody wants to get
punched in the face.
Like, nobody wants to have
their nose broken three times.
Like, nobody wants
that unless you're
fighting something
spiritually or emotionally,
a ghost inside your mind.
- I started to enjoy it.
That's the scary part.
I loved getting
hit in the face now
because I loved the
buildup of the retaliation.
I loved the buildup
of the anger.
♪ ♪
It's pain that I
want to give back.
♪ ♪
So once that first bell rings...
[bell rings]
It's game on.
♪ ♪
And when I get hit,
it doesn't hurt.
But now I have an
excuse to get angry.
♪ ♪
And guess what, I'm gonna beat
the living sh*t out of you.
♪ ♪
I don't care what happens to me.
I'm gonna go out there
and just let it all out.
And then you get into a trance.
Your soul comes
out of your body.
- And Oscar wants this so
badly, he can taste it.
[crowd roaring]
- You're in your own world.
Nothing else matters.
Everything is just landing
that perfect punch.
♪ ♪
It's distorted my lifestyle.
It's distorted my thinking.
It's kind of f*cked
with my psyche.
♪ ♪
- There's a lot more
intimacy that men crave
that they're only allowed to
get through sex and sports.
Men need to be able to
cry, and to be embraced,
and to be hugged.
And it's sad that
the little boys,
especially Mexican
boys, are told,
as soon as they start crying,
that they're not allowed to cry.
♪ ♪
- You see my eyes.
You see my face.
I'm numb.
I'm just... I'm not
even focused at my...
I'm focused at something else.
Like, my eyes are...
My eyes are not even there.
I'm focused at...
Yeah, I can see myself fighting.
And I don't even know
why I'm fighting.
I just wanted to win,
wanted to be loved.
That's it.
♪ ♪
- Finally, we have arrived, as
we get set for the main event.
Oscar De La Hoya takes
on Julio César Chávez.
It's an ultimate
revenge in the rematch.
- Oscar, you say this is
a personal fight for you.
It's about respect, isn't
it, and the lack of respect
that he showed you
after the first fight?
- Well, I'm not crying about
it or nothing like that
because I don't
cry about things.
I'm a real man.
I just want respect
that fighters deserve.
♪ ♪
- I used to bully
Oscar as a kid.
I remember a specific
moment in time.
♪ ♪
He was about 11 years old.
I used to mess with him,
and he got fed up one day.
♪ ♪
So I go into the kitchen,
and he kind of pushes me.
I'm all... I'm not
gonna let that happen.
I turn around to kind of just
know scare him off a bit.
But he stood his ground.
♪ ♪
And I saw that look.
- And De La Hoya staring
daggers at Chávez.
- There was this raging
animal inside of him.
♪ ♪
And he socks me in the stomach.
I go down to my knees,
and I can't breathe.
And I finally get
up, and I see him,
and he's, like,
looking at me like...
- Chávez won't come out.
He has refused to come out.
And I am shocked!
- Kid finally did it.
And that was the last
time I messed with him.
OK, that's it. I'm done.
♪ ♪
It was out of respect.
- What did he say to you?
- He told me, you know what?
You beat me.
♪ ♪
You made the great
warrior quit on his stool.
- Thank you. Thank
you very much.
And this fight here
meant a lot to me.
There was just one
focus on my mind today,
of course, to get a victory,
but this fight here is
dedicated to my mother.
This is for you.
♪ ♪
When I was 16 years old,
I walk into the house.
My mom tells me, crying, like,
"Son, can you put this
cream on my back?"
We've never had that
type of contact.
And she lifted up her
shirt, and I saw the burns.
I was in shock.
And then she's just crying.
"I have cancer."
♪ ♪
What is cancer?
What's going on?
"I have stage four
cancer. I'm gonna die."
I just couldn't believe
it. I had no words.
I couldn't cry. I
couldn't hug her.
I couldn't comfort her.
I couldn't do anything.
You know? I was just in shock.
The last fight she went to,
it was the Goodwill Games.
I see this lady waving the
American and Mexican flag.
Oh, my God, that's my mom.
♪ ♪
She missed her chemotherapy
to attend that last fight.
- We'd be in the waiting room,
and she'd be in such pain
that you could just
hear her moaning.
I'd hold her hand
and talk to her.
- I went up to her. "Mom,
you know, how are you?
Are you OK today?"
And she looked at me
like, who are you?
That one hit me good.
I remember going home and
just crying, just crying.
- She held my hand, and,
you know, she told me,
"Te quiero. I
love you, te amo."
And I made a promise
to her that I would
be the best brother I could
be, the best son to my dad.
And I told her how
much I loved her.
And I think first time
I ever told her that,
I heard her breathe
her last breath.
♪ ♪
- Coming back to the hospital,
I wanted to like rip
the elevator open
and just run straight to her,
and maybe there's a chance
that she can see me.
But she was gone.
♪ ♪
Never had the courage
to tell her I love her.
I wish I did, you
know? I wish I did.
♪ ♪
- There was never
a singular moment
where we kind of, as a family,
with our father,
and, you know, Oscar,
my sister, and myself,
where we sat down,
we reminisced, we talked.
It was like, well, she passed.
OK, let's kind of like
move on. You know?
Which just sounds pretty shitty
when you look at it that way.
But I mean, it's just something
that we weren't accustomed to,
I guess, sitting down and having
those hard conversations.
- Dad, him being, of
course, being the tough dad,
being the tough love
kind of dad, like,
I think he really wanted us
to, like, just deal with it
and toughen up, you know?
But it was really difficult.
It was always just like, OK,
let's just all deal
with it on our own.
- It was just a strange
relationship that we had.
We love each other, but we
can't express ourselves.
We can't show any compassion.
We can't really say
anything to each other,
express our feelings.
But I can do it in the media.
I can do it with a stranger.
That was... to me,
that was my therapy.
That was the way I can cope.
That was the way I can
go on with my life,
and stay focused, and stay
focused on the prize at hand,
and that was the gold medal.
Everything was about the gold
medal because it was for her.
She wanted to wear that gold
medal around her neck in '92,
and she told me to
just get it for her.
And that's what I'm gonna do.
I was gonna win that gold
medal no matter what,
but I was driven by a lie.
In one interview, I had
said, my mother did tell me,
while she's dying, "Win
the gold medal for me."
Before my mother passed away,
she told me she
wanted the gold medal.
But it was a lie.
It just happened.
Emotion took over me,
and it just caught fire.
- He brought honor
to his mom's memory.
- Won our hearts recently
when he fulfilled a promise
to his mom to win the
Olympic gold medal.
- I embraced it.
I held onto it.
And in a way, it was like...
It was like me finally,
for the first time, feeling
like we're connected,
like we have a relationship
after she passed away.
Being driven by that lie
didn't seem wrong for me.
It didn't seem like I
was doing anything wrong.
I was just happy that the
story was about my mom,
and that she asked
me, she told me to win
that gold medal for her.
That was my drive,
my green light to go and do it,
my motivation.
But yeah, it was a lie.
But when you're lying,
you're caught up in this web,
and you have to lie more
because I'm the Golden Boy.
They put me on the
pedestal, and it's like,
"Oh, you can't do
anything wrong.
He's the Golden Boy. You
know, he's an angel."
Well, guess what, I'm
not a f*cking angel.
[dramatic music]
- Regarding the allegations,
all we want is the truth.
- I was told by De
La Hoya's attorney
that he didn't
remember the event,
and he had actually slept with
about 500 women since then.
♪ ♪
- Oscar De La Hoya being an
alcoholic, a dope fiend...
- We want to see a fight, right?
- No, no, no.
They're not... no.
[dramatic music]
[dramatic orchestral music]
♪ ♪
[bright tone]
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01x01 - Episode 1
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It peels back the layers of Oscar de la Hoya while celebrating this complicated and controversial figure.
It peels back the layers of Oscar de la Hoya while celebrating this complicated and controversial figure.