Oscar De La Hoya spent the first day of the rest of his life making a speech from a lectern that faced across a street at a 20-foot statue of himself.
The Golden Boy, already bronzed, announced his retirement as a boxer Tuesday. This was not so much news as it was inevitability.
He is 36, has had 45 fights, won 10 titles in six weight classes, been on a record 19 pay-per-view fights and a record 32 HBO telecasts, has generated just shy of $700 million in pay-per-view revenue, also a record, and has carried his sport, through thick and mostly thin, for much of his 17 years as a pro fighter.
More important, he has a wife and kids and knows he is reaching the stage where more fights, more blows to the head, can lead more quickly to slurring than to success.
"I want to watch my kids grow up," De La Hoya said.
Tim Leiweke, a business partner of De La Hoya's in Golden Boy Promotions, seconded that in his turn at the lectern.
"His wife, Millie, will be glad to get him back," Leiweke said, "and completely intact."
Millie Corretjer, Puerto Rican actress and recording star, and Mrs. De La Hoya for the last eight years, said, "I can't wait for our next eight, and our next eight."
She said she disliked boxing when she first met De La Hoya.
"But I learned to love it," she said, "because he loved it so much."
There was too much pomp and circumstance in the plaza outside Nokia Theatre for this to turn out like so many of those other boxer retirements, which are merely rest periods, awaiting the next big paycheck.
Asked afterward if there had been one big fight that he saw out there that had given him pause in this decision, De La Hoya said, "There are a lot of slow guys left that I could have fought, but the answer is no. If you do that, there will always be a last fight."
His pro career began Nov. 23, 1992, just months after he won the only United States gold medal in boxing at the Barcelona Olympics. That pro debut, De La Hoya fighting Lamar Williams at 133 pounds, was described by boxing writer Earl Gustkey of The Times:
"Oscar De La Hoya launched his professional boxing career at 9:22 p.m. Monday night at the Forum. By 9:24, he was 1-0 and looking happily to a future more golden than his recent past."
He won his first title March 5, 1994, against Jimmi Bredahl at the Forum, at 130 pounds. And he didn't lose until Sept. 18, 1999, or 31 fights into his career, when he took a big lead and then tired and coasted at the end against Felix Trinidad, who was awarded a controversial decision.
