The following is a complete transcript of Oscar De La Hoya?s Aug. 30 appearance on the Univision show ?Aqui y Ahora.? The show aired in Spanish. Univision translated the transcript and provided it to Yahoo! Sports.
Oscar De La Hoya: Obviously, people see me as a champion, what I was, as a gold medalist, a family man.
Show narrator: After a brilliant boxing career, the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, seemed to have it all: A happy marriage with a former Puerto Rican singer, Millie Corretjer, with whom he had two children, Oscar Gabriel and Nina Lauren.
He also achieved an impressive boxing record: Six world titles in six different weight categories, and he managed to generate $696 million in profits from his fights on pay-per-view, more money than any other boxer in history.
Univision interviewer Teresa Rodriguez: What do you like remembering the most of your boxing career?
Oscar: The Olympics is what I like to remember the most. The fact that I dedicated it to my mother, may she rest in peace, was a dream come true.
Narrator: De La Hoya is referring to a gold medal he won in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992, soon after he graduated from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles.
Oscar:That medal was the start of it all, in terms of boxing and emotionally. It made me a positive person for the community, for people.
Rodriguez: And what point of your life do you least like to remember?
Oscar:My mother?s death. That death was the hardest thing I?ve ever gone through.
Narrator: His mother, Cecilia, died from breast cancer when Oscar was 17. Ever since, he has dedicated all his fights to her, his No. 1 fan.
Oscar:She was a fan until the bitter end and now I remember the many fights she went to where she?s screaming, and not screaming, telling me, ?Take care,? or ?Cover your face,? she?s screaming, ?Hit him, knock him out.? [laughs] She was a mother with a strong character, but very loving, and she supported me 100 percent.
Narrator: In 2001, De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions, becoming the first Hispanic American to own a boxer promotions company and opening doors for other young men.
Oscar:To me, it?s very important to follow that tradition and try to find those champions, role models for the next generation.
Narrator: Although he feels very proud of his company and his accomplishments, he admits that he misses the boxing ring.
Rodriguez:Would you go back to the ring?
Oscar:No, never!
Rodriguez:Why not?
Oscar:I love the sport. I love the sport very much, but physically and mentally, I can?t do it.
Narrator: In what was one of the most anticipated fights in his career, in December of 2008, De La Hoya faced off with the man who up until then had been his last challenger.
Oscar: The last fight I had with Manny Pacquiao was like a sign given to me, ?Look, it?s time to retire. Your body, your mind are no longer in this.?
Narrator: Pacquiao beat the ?Golden Boy? with a technical KO at the beginning of the ninth round, when De La Hoya decided not to return to the ring. After that defeat, the 36-year-old boxer put the gloves aside.
Oscar:It was a very hard life, a life with many sacrifices, a lot of work and a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure, and I think that I was unable to manage that life on many occasions.
Rodriguez:What goals did you have when you retired in 2009?
Oscar:A healthy, clean life, no problems, having a beautiful family, a satisfying life and, obviously, retiring like a champion. That is what I wanted.
Rodriguez:Do you think losing that match affected you?
Oscar:It didn?t affect me at all. I was already affected. I was already in a different world.
Narrator: According to him, that other world was full of demons.
Oscar:It was my secret. I felt very powerful being alone, being alone, by myself, drinking and doing bad things. I felt very powerful, but at the same time, I was crying and feeling lonely.
Rodriguez:Because perhaps a part of you realized it?
Oscar: I realized it. I have very good values. I come from a very good family, I realized it, but this addiction, this ?monster? as we call it, took over me.
Narrator: And with those words, for the first time, the world-boxing champion admits publicly for the first time that he had hit rock bottom and had to seek urgent help.
Rodriguez:Oscar, last May you entered a rehab center voluntarily. What led you to do that?
Oscar:Well, where do I start? First, I want to tell you, and nobody knows this, that I started drinking at 9.
Rodriguez:And why so young?
Oscar:You know that sometimes there are parties that families organize. You go to your uncle?s house, to your cousins?, and the men hang out with the men in the backyard, the women are in the kitchen ? which was typical ? ?Let?s ask Oscarito to go get us a beer from the kitchen? and, well, obviously, I went, opened it, tried a bit. My uncles, nobody said anything, it was a sip, there was nothing wrong with that, and after going 20, 30 times to that refrigerator, well I was already ? Nine years old, imagine that.
Narrator: And he remembers how his mother reprimanded him when she saw him inebriated one day.
Oscar:I thought my mom was going to give me a hug, a ?Son, are you OK?? But of course, she slapped me, she scolded me with a, ?What are you doing?? She hit me and I thought it was going to be the last time, but it wasn?t, and it went on for many years. I started to like it. And it wasn?t that I liked it, but that I needed it.
Since I was an athlete who was already boxing, it wasn?t like I?d drink every day. Once a month, whenever I could, and I could hide it, and that was what my life was like for many years.
Rodriguez:Do you think you sought alcohol because there something missing in your life. Were you missing something?
Oscar:There was a void, obviously. A void that was eating me up inside, and it is the affection, the love a son needs, that a boy needs, from his parents, from his mother.
Narrator: Oscar recognizes that he never recovered from the loss of his mother. It was such a blow that alcohol became a balm for his wounds, robbing him, according to him, of five years as professional boxer.
Oscar:Often I?d cancel fights. Sometimes I?d pretend to be hurt so I wouldn?t have to fight because I was partying, because I needed it. That is what I wanted.
