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Hours after Oscar De La Hoya announced that he was retiring from boxing, I asked him what his goals are in the business world, and what he wants to accomplish in the second act of his career, as the head of Golden Boy Promotions. De La Hoya said he embraces the challenge, and that while boxing is his first love, he is also proud of investing in other sports, including soccer.
"I'm a very ambitious person and whatever we touch in business -- whether it's promoting, whether it's soccer -- we want to make sure that we give ourselves the opportunity to be our best," De La Hoya said. "My plans -- our plans -- for Golden Boy Promotions, the sky's the limit. Because we're promoting the sport that used to be the sport. The sport where we can fill up arenas, where we can have millions of people watching and talking about boxing, and we have an opportunity to build it back."
De La Hoya knows that boxing isn't as popular a sport as it used to be, and his own retirement means the sport just lost its most popular athlete. But he still believes boxing is coming back.
"Slowly but surely we're heading toward the right direction," De La Hoya said. "We have a great team that we've put together and we're going to work hard toward the betterment of the sport, whether it's taking care of the fighter, or whether it's making sure the fans aren't confused who the champion is, or whether it's making sure that the fighters are receiving medical help. That's the vision. Those are the things we want to work toward. And we're very optimistic that it's going to get done, sooner or later."
De La Hoya has also invested in Major League Soccer, and he said he sees similar potential for growth in that sport.
"Soccer, with the Houston Dynamo, now we're involved in a different sport where we have the opportunity along with everyone else involved in the MLS to grow the sport, to make it as popular as it can be here in the States," De La Hoya said. "To make it the sport among our kids. It's a great responsibility, so we embrace it. We at Golden Boy are hard workers, ambitious people and realize the potential that these sports have."
Most boxers who announce their retirement end up returning to the ring, but that's because most boxers don't have any other source of income. De La Hoya is a savvy businessman, and he sounds like he's ready to hang up the gloves and move on.
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