The Golden Boy is Back

Born in East Los Angeles into a family of boxers, Oscar De La Hoya made his professional debut on November 23, 1992, by scoring a first-round TKO victory. This was just the beginning of a career that would span 17 titles in six weight classes with championships as a junior lightweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welterweight, and middleweight. And he’s not stopping there. The 48-year-old De La Hoya planned to return to the ring on September 11th in Las Vegas to face former UFC champion, Vitor Belfort, before he contracted COVID-19 and landed in the hospital. “I was in the hospital for three days fighting COVID-19. It hit me really hard. I was in the best shape of my life [before getting sick] and I can’t wait to get back in the ring,” said De La Hoya. With another match on his mind, it seems De La Hoya will be making two comebacks, one from COVID-19 and another from his 12-year retirement.
De La Hoya hasn’t taken his time off lying down. In fact, in his spare time from serving as Chairman and CEO of his own promotions company, Golden Boy Promotions, he has worked to bring awareness to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), specifically how fighters can protect themselves from this deadly degenerative brain disease brought on by repeated blows to the head — something that all professional fighters will inevitably encounter.

“Fighters put everything on the line every time they step in the ring and, far too often, it results in serious damage,” said De La Hoya. “While head trauma can happen in an instant, far more often the damage comes from repeated punches during a lifetime of fighting and sparring.”

Even with his legendary boxing record, De La Hoya has taken many blows to the head and he knows this puts him at risk for long-term brain injury. Out of this desire to help himself and his fellow athletes maintain their brain health and to do his part in helping to create a safety-driven culture in the sport of boxing came a partnership with Skulltec, a protective athletic gear company. Skulltec’s line of products uses patented technology proven to disperse energy and reduce impact. Specifically, De La Hoya has endorsed the Skullcap — designed to be worn under any headgear. The cap adds a critical second layer of protection, using a gel-based technology that disperses energy upon impact, making trauma less likely.

Known in the boxing world as ‘Punch Drunk Syndrome’, CTE is pervasive in fighting culture. A silent killer, the damage CTE causes is delayed and symptoms can lie dormant for many years. A study published in Neurology compared 204 active and retired boxers with a control group. The results demonstrate that three different brain regions shrink in active boxers compared with controls. The degree of shrinkage and the different regions that shrank suggest that several disease processes related to repetitive head injury may be attacking the gray matter of the brain simultaneously.

The study also measured blood levels of two proteins that indicate brain injury or neurological malfunction. Both were elevated in boxers compared with controls. Furthermore, shrinkage was more pronounced among retired fighters, suggesting that the more trauma fighters sustain over time, the more long-term consequences there are for brain health.

With evidence like this, there’s no doubt that CTE should be a serious consideration for any fighter. It certainly is for De La Hoya: “If I can do anything to help boxers avoid CTE and other brain injuries, I will.”