BY ROBERT MORALES, Staff Writer
Oscar De La Hoya is not fooling anyone, least of all himself.
Despite his nickname "Golden Boy," De La Hoya's life outside the ring has not always been golden. Three of his four children were born out of wedlock. There was the time an underage girl accused De La Hoya of sexual assault in Mexico.
De La Hoya vehemently denied the charges, which were never proven, and the issue was settled out of court. De La Hoya, however, said he has grown up over the years. After all,that's what a mature individual does.
"Just like I've had bumps in the road in boxing, I've had those in my personal life," said De La Hoya, who Saturday will challenge Ricardo Mayorga for his World Boxing Council super welterweight title at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "As long as I can pick myself up and grow from it, I'm content. I think that is what life is all about, you picking yourself up and learning and growing and not making those same mistakes."
It was De La Hoya's fourth child, Oscar Gabriel, who became the first of his siblings born in wedlock four months ago to De La Hoya and his wife, Millie. He is the only child with whom De La Hoya lives.
And little Oscar is reaping the benefits of having a father who has his feet more firmly on the ground than perhaps at any other time in his life. De La Hoya, 33, says he is showing his infant son the same kind of love his late mother, Cecilia, showed him as he was growing up in East Los Angeles.
Cecilia De La Hoya died in 1990 of breast cancer at age 39. De La Hoya was only 17, still nearly two years away from winning a gold medal for Team USA in the 1992 Olympics.
"My father (Joel), for instance, wasn't the type of man who told me, Son, I love you,'" De La Hoya said. "I don't think he ever told me that. I knew he did love me, but he never really expressed it.
"Oscar Gabriel, I pour love all over him. It's important. The love that I received
from my mother ... she would tell me she loves me every day, give me kisses every day, hugged me every day. That's where I learned it from."
De La Hoya comes off as a man proud of having learned from past indisgressions. Now, if he can only redeem himself in the ring, he will be complete. De La Hoya, in his last fight 20 months ago, was knocked out in the ninth round by Bernard Hopkins in a battle for the undisputed middleweight championship. It is the only time De La Hoya (37-4, 29 KOs)has been stopped inside the distance.
"I'm a big example for a lot of people and I think this is bigger than boxing, what I'm trying to do here May 6," De La Hoya said. "In winning that title, that's going to last forever.
"People are going to remember how Oscar picked himself up and became champion again. So, it goes beyond boxing. I think this is a message that can last for a very long time."
(All systems go) Mayorga on Wednesday threatened to pull out of the fight if he wasn't paid more than his guaranteed $2 million. But Thursday, De La Hoya said all systems are go.
"The fight is on," De La Hoya said. "I'm ready, Mayorga's ready, and we're going to go to war on Saturday. I know he wants to get at me as bad as I want to get at him, and nothing's going to stop this fight from happening."
Mayorga on Thursday invited reporters to watch him train. That was a far cry from Wednesday night when, shortly after saying he would not fight unless his purse was increased, he was seen in the media room, drinking coffee and telling reporters it didn't matter what he ate or drank because he wasn't going to fight."
