Oscar de la Hoya became Ring Magazine's "fighter of the year" in 1995 and between 1997 and 1999 was described as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by Ring Magazine and KO Magazine. His fights throughout his entire career have generated a total of almost half a billion dollars in Pay-per-view sales alone[1][2]. He is also the only fighter in the history of boxing to win eleven world titles in a record six weight classes.

During his amateur career, De la Hoya's record was 223-5 with 163 knockouts. He was the United States' top Olympic boxing hope when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died at age 35. On her death bed, he promised her that he would win an Olympic gold medal.

De la Hoya was raised as the son of Mexican immigrants in impoverished circumstances in East Los Angeles. He began boxing at the age of eight.

On November 23, 1992, De la Hoya made his pro debut. He went on to win titles in 6 different weight divisions and beat former and current world champions Troy Dorsey (KO 1), Jimmy Bredahl, (KO 10), Jorge Paez, (KO 2), Genaro Hernandez (TKO 6), John John Molina (W 12), Rafael Ruelas (TKO 2), Julio Cesar Chavez (TKO 4, KO 8), Miguel Angel Gonzalez (W 12), Jesse James Leija (KO 2), Pernell Whitaker (W 12), Hector "Macho" Camacho (W 12), Ike Quartey (W 12), Arturo Gatti (KO 5), Francisco Javier Castillejo (W 12), and Fernando Vargas (KO 11). His losses include a controversial majority-decision loss to Félix Trinidad and two decision losses to Shane Mosley. He has been stopped once in his career by the larger Bernard Hopkins (KO 9).

On September 14, 2002, Oscar fought his nemesis "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas. After fiercely competitive early rounds, Oscar seized control of the latter half of the fight. In round 11, Oscar De la Hoya dropped Fernando Vargas with a left hook. Fernando Vargas got up at the count of nine, but De la Hoya finished him with a barrage of punches forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1:48 of round 11 (TKO 11). It was later revealed that Fernando Vargas had tested positive for steroids in his post-fight drug test.

On May 3, 2003, as part of the Cinco de Mayo festivities, he retained his WBC and WBA world junior middleweight championships when the corner of former world champion Yori Boy Campas threw in the towel, and officially gave De la Hoya a seventh round knockout win. On September 13, he and former rival Mosley met once again, in Las Vegas, and Mosley once again took away De la Hoya's world title belts with a 12 round unanimous decision over de la Hoya.

De la Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm for the WBO world middleweight title on June 5, 2004. He was awarded a unanimous decision, to become the first boxer in history to win world titles in 6 different weight divisions. After that, he hoped to unify that title with the three other world middleweight championships, held by Bernard Hopkins, on September 18.

He lost to Hopkins by a ninth round knockout. A left hand to the body sent him to the canvas, knocking De la Hoya out for the first time in his career. Hopkins would later join De la Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, a boxing promotion firm.

De la Hoya faced WBC world junior middleweight Ricardo Mayorga on May 6, 2006 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He won this bout in by a TKO in round 6. De La Hoya said that he will not fight again in 2006 but will not retire.