De
La Hoya vs Camacho
On September 13, 1997, Oscar De La Hoya defeated
Hector Camacho by unanimous decision.
De La Hoya vs Chavez II
On
September 18, 1998, De La Hoya fought a rematch with Julio Cesar Chavez
(100-2-2) and defeated him by eighth round TKO. In his next bout,
he faced undefeated former WBA welterweight champion Ike Quartey (34-0-1)
and won by a somewhat disputable split decision. De La Hoya was knocked
down once in the fight, while Quartey was down twice. He then defeated
Oba Carr (48-2-1) by eleventh round TKO.
Light middleweight
He
then moved up to light middleweight, challenging the lineal and WBC
champion Javier Castillejo. De La Hoya won the fight, winning almost
every round and knocking Castillejo (51-4) down with ten seconds to
go to win the title by a unanimous decision.
De La Hoya vs Karmazin
cancellation
On October 8, 2001 it was announced that Oscar De La Hoya
would return to the Grand Olympic Auditorium where he won his first
title to defend his WBC light middleweight championship against the
WBC No. 1 challenger Roman Karmazin, but on November 8, 2001 it was
announced the fight was cancelled. Suffering from a torn cartilage
in his left wrist, De La Hoya has been forced to cancel his December
8 title defense. He was hoping to fight again on May 4, a date he
had already reserved before the injury. It was an old injury, one
that De La Hoya incurred in the first round of his 1999 fight against
Oba Carr. "It was from a left hook I threw in that fight," De La Hoya
said, "and the pain has been there ever since. "On a scale of one
to 10, I would say it was a five or six." Ten days ago, on his first
day of sparring for the Karmazin match, De La Hoya threw a punch that
severely aggravated the wrist. De La Hoya planned on facing a major
opponent in May, Trinidad, Mosley, Hopkins, or Vargas, and says he
still hopes to do so if he can get WBC approval to put off his mandatory
match. De La Hoya said the hand bothered him in his losses against
Trinidad and Mosley. "It was always bothering me," he said, "but we
are fighters and we have to tough it out." The fight seemed to have
been cursed from the start. When Karmazin's two trainers, his manager
and his doctor were all denied visas, the Russian fighter had threatened
to go home to train. Karmazin's promoter, Frank Moloney, went further,
questioning whether the fight would happen.
Rivalry with Fernando
Vargas
De La Hoya did not fight for the 15 months and in this time
the rivalry between him and WBA champion "Ferocious" Fernando Vargas
(22-1) grew. They knew each other as amateurs and it is said the rivalry
began when Vargas was angered by De La Hoya laughing at him after
he fell into a snowbank. De La Hoya said he would never fight him.
Eventually, however, De La Hoya accepted a match. The fight was scheduled
for May 2002, but De La Hoya had to withdraw because of a hand injury.
The
unification bout, labeled "Bad Blood," finally took place on September
14, 2002, at the Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip. The fight was
even for the first six rounds, with Vargas Landing punches on the
ropes in the odd rounds, while De La Hoya outboxed him in the even
rounds. De La Hoya took over the fight in the seventh round and hurt
Vargas with a left hook in the tenth. In the next round, De La Hoya
knocked Vargas down with a left hook and stopped him moments later.
The win is widely considered to be the biggest of De La Hoya's career.
Vargas tested positive for stanozolo after the fight.