Lights Out for the Golden Boy

Oscar De La Hoya is done. I'm not sure any sport has owed more to one participant, at least in recent years. There were a lot of cosmetic things to dislike about Goldie's persona (his vanilla interviews, his singing) and his fighting (he faded at the end of bouts, he always lost to the best he fought), but the the reasons to admire him were many more, and much more important. He carried the sport on his back for a decade; more than any other superstar, he didn't duck tough fights; and while he was sometimes a preener outside of the ring, he usually delivered inside the ring. I'll always remember two things when I think of De La Hoya's career: his beautiful left hook, and his manic jaw-stretching before his fights. Let's have a look at him closing the show against Fernando Vargas (a fight which cost me 50 bones).