Oscar stayed out of the ring for more than nine months following his loss to Shane Mosley in June of 2000. He chose Arturo Gatti as his next opponent, on March 24, 2001 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and I tuned into HBO to watch it. De La Hoya had admitted that once his undefeated record was gone, he started to question himself, and didn’t have the cloak of invincibility on his shoulders anymore. Gatti was a glorified club fighter, and figured to be the perfect guy to regain his confidence after having lost his last two big bouts.
Things went according to plan against Gatti, with Oscar easily dominating his outclassed foe, and stopping him in five. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Gatti, who was a tough, gritty fighter, but in this case, was simply out of his league. ‘The Golden Boy’ had a win under his belt, and searched for a new challenge in the ring.
He decided to move up to super-welterweight, and take on Javier Castillejo on June 23, 2001 at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas. Being a huge Oscar fan, I ordered the pay-per-view card, but was admittedly disappointed in what I saw. Oscar looked soft at 154 lbs., lacked the muscularity he had before, and won a boring 12 round decision to take home the title. Even though I taped it to my VCR, I never watched it again.
De La Hoya had been suffering with a chronic, and recurring left wrist injury that he finally had operated on. Surgery was followed by rehabilitation that postponed fights in December of 2001 and May 2002. Now healthy, his eyes were set on a hometown rival, Fernando Vargas for September 2002 in Las Vegas.
Both were bitter enemies, with genuine bad blood between them. I honestly couldn’t stand Vargas, with his cocky attitude and foul mouth. When my brother came over to watch the September 14 pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay, we were both excited to see Oscar take care of this punk.
It was an evenly matched battle for the first six rounds, until Oscar started to show his superior skills. He cut Vargas’s eye, and in the tenth, dropped him with a beautiful left hook. De La Hoya seized the advantage in the eleventh, forcing Vargas to the ropes. He followed with an avalanche of punches, forcing referee Joe Cortez to call halt the action. This was one enjoyable sight to see, Vargas on the ropes, bloodied and soundly beaten. As expected, he failed a post-fight drug test for steroids, and was banned from boxing until the summer of 2003.
Oscar was back on the top, and it was nice to see a fight go exactly as you hoped it would. Boxing had been an escape from the drudgery of life since the late 70’s, and more than 20 years later, it still was.
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM AT kensoldtimeboxingchat
LISTEN TO MY PODCAST ON SPOTIFY AT kensoldtimeboxingchat
FOLLOW ME ON TIKTOK AT kensoldtimeboxingchat
