Oscar De La Hoya is often heralded as one of the greatest fighters in recent memory, but ‘The Golden Boy’ had only one pick when it came to naming the best fighter to have ever laced up the gloves.
De La Hoya became the first ever fighter to become a six-division world champion when he outpointed Felix Sturm to get his hands of the WBO middleweight crown back in 2004, a decade on from his WBO super-featherweight title triumph against Jimmy Bredahl.
‘The Golden Boy’ also picked up world honours at lightweight, super-lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight, defeating fighters such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Hector Camacho and Pernell Whitaker along the way.
Five years after De La Hoya had become a six-weight world champion, he was joined in his exclusive club by Manny Pacquiao, who became a sextuple champion by dramatically knocking out Ricky Hatton at super-lightweight – before adding a further two divisions to his résumé.
In an interview with ESNews, De La Hoya’s appreciation for multi-divisional accomplishments was clear, as he unequivocally named Sugar Ray Robinson as boxing’s pound-for-pound greatest.
“Sugar Ray Robinson is the greatest of all time. That’s basically it. All the weight divisions, hardest puncher, best footwork. He would fight multiple times a month. Took on the very best, took on the toughest challenges.”
Robinson won world titles at both welterweight and middleweight but famously fell short when bidding for light-heavyweight honours; halted by Joey Maxim, but more so the heat, after 13 rounds of action in their 1952 showdown.