Oscar Hoya Quotes (29 Quotes)

When I saw I could stay in front of him, our game plan changed. It was working until he threw that good body shot.

EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 is so realistic that anyone can pick up the game and learn about the actual sport while having a fun time doing it. The visuals in the game are so amazing. It's exciting to be contributing to a project that pushes the popularity of boxing to a new level and to a new audience.

Boxing is a never-ending story. New fighters keep coming along. Opponents keep popping up. The next superstar is always on the way.

He's a breath of fresh air for the sport of boxing, and we need that.

It's exciting to be contributing to a project that pushes the popularity of boxing to a new level and to a new audience. EA SPORTS Fight Night Round 3 is so realistic anyone can pick up the game and learn about the actual sport while having a fun time doing it. The visuals in the game are so amazing. You can actually see the emotions on my face change throughout the round.

(Mayweather is) too big of a fight not to happen, but obviously, it has to happen without Top Rank. Because I just feel that things that happened in the past with Top Rank, us not making fights together and Bob Arum not wanting to make fights with our fighters ... well, OK. If you don't want to make fights with our fighters, if I fight Floyd Jr., then you're not going to be involved. It's not giving him the satisfaction. It's like saying, 'OK, you're not going to be involved in the biggest fight in boxing since (my fight against Felix) Trinidad. If he wants to play that way, I'll play that way, too.

I don't know if I'm going to fight again or not, ... I have an odd relationship with boxing. Boxing took me to a better life, and I love being in the ring. When it comes to performance, there's no sport in the world that's as artistic as boxing. It takes genius to win a championship fight at the highest level. Boxing is a love I have that will never go away. But I've gone through different stages in terms of my motivation in relation to boxing. At first, I was fighting to please my father. Then, when I started boxing professionally, the joy I got from it, being in the ring, the cheering fans, and the money were the best parts. After that, there was a time when I did it for the belts. Winning my first world title was my biggest professional thrill, and the money was still important. Now I'm doing it for history. The money doesn't matter anymore.

These two guys are veteran fighters, ... The good thing is, both of these guys have chins, so it is going to be really good it's going to be a barnburner.

I've said for years, ... that my biggest heroes are school teachers. A good school teacher is like another parent.

I would have loved to have met Elvis Presley, ... He was the King. It's very interesting to me the way he grew up, the demons he battled, how he handled the pressure and how, after a while, it became a burden he couldn't carry.

Once, I was at a party, ... This was at a time when it seemed like I had everything. I was young. I was undefeated. I had money. I'd just moved into my own home. People at the party were laughing and having fun. And I missed my mother. I felt so lonely. I remember asking myself, 'Why isn't my mother here Why are all these people around me I don't want these people around me.' I looked out the window and started crying.

I want to change the way boxing is structured. There is no structure.

The only reason I would fight again, ... is to erase the memory of losing my last fight. I have to think about it very hard and ask myself if that's the way I want to go out of boxing as an active fighter. My last two fights were at 160 pounds, and I'm not happy with either of them. Fighters are like cars. At some point, the gas tank is empty. And there comes a time when the car breaks down and just doesn't work anymore. I can't be a boxer for my entire life. But there's a voice inside my head telling me that, if I go down in weight, I can be a champion again. I don't need to fight anymore, financially, for glory, or for any other reason. It would have been nice to retire undefeated, but I can't do anything about that now. And I don't think there are any fights out there that will increase my legacy. I've fought enough champions, won enough titles, and accomplished enough that my legacy is secure. And I hate getting hit. Getting hit hurts it damages you. I have no fear of boxing. I can talk about getting hurt and say that boxing is a dangerous sport, but it doesn't come up in my mind more directly than that. When a fighter trains his body and mind to fight, there's no room for fear. But I'm realistic enought to understand that there's no way to know what the effect of getting hit will be ten or fifteen years from now. I've been asking myself for years, 'How much longer will I box' And the answer is, I don't know.

Whatever comes next for me, as far as boxing is concerned, I have no regrets. I would never change what I've accomplished and the history I've made.

This guy is even worse. Because when I get back to Puerto Rico and train, believe me, I'm going to knock you out. You can laugh. May 6, you're not going to laugh. You'll see.

There's one moment with my mother that sticks out in my mind, ... She was battling cancer. She'd already had chemotherapy and her hair was falling out. I was walking home from high school. My mother was sitting on the front porch with the radio on. She was singing a song called 'Noah, Noah' by a Latin singer named Juan Gabriel. I started singing and dancing with her, and I could see that she was happy despite the pain. That was a very special moment for me. That's the best memory I have of my mother.

I was seventeen when my mother passed away, ... I was heartbroken. Nothing mattered to me anymore. I thought seriously about not finishing high school, even of dropping out of boxing. Not one day passes that I don't think about my mother. And to be honest, there are still times when it's a lonely world without her. But I feel that I was blessed to have her in my life, and I believe she's still looking out for me.

We are going through the process right now with Bob Arum. When we signed the contract to do the fight with Hopkins and with Felix Sturm, he (Arum) had first and last.

I think I proved my point. I think that winning the title at 154-pounds and knocking him out in the eleventh round, I think at this point in my career I really can't afford to give rematches to anyone I already knocked out.

To me, it's like if you want to have an acquaintance with me, that's fine. But it's not on the top of my list, to be friends with him.

I've grown up, ... I'm less naive than before. I stopped the party scene a long time ago and started spending more time with family and real friends. I'm not perfect. Sometimes, I think about what I would say if I could talk to my mother again. First, I'd get off my chest the mistakes and bad decisions I've made. I'm married now with a wonderful wife. We're expecting a baby boy in December. I'm doing LaMaze classes and experiencing morning sickness with her. As a father, I'm going to be there every day I possibly can. But I had two children out-of-wedlock, not with my wife, before I was married. They're beautiful children I adore them. But I grew up with a solid family, and Jacob and Atiana ages 7 and 6 are entitled to that too. I try to be a good father to them, but it's not the same and there were other times when my head was turned by fame and fortune. Maybe the best way to say it is that I've made mistakes in my life, but they were innocent mistakes and I've grown from them.

I tried to do the impossible on paper -- beat the middleweight champ coming up from 130 pounds.

I need to fight the fighters that have wins over me. I hope Felix Trinidad comes back. I'd like to fight Shane Mosley, maybe Middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins if I can gain weight or meet in the middle. Those are the fights I'm looking for and those are the fights that will define my career.

You don't represent your people. You can't represent anyone correctly. I promise you I will knock you out. I had one other opponent who I (hated) and I knocked him out (Fernando Vargas) too. I promise you will also be knocked out. Believe me.

Personally, I have nothing against Bob Arum. I can say, 'Hey, let's shake hands, patch things up and that's it.' It's him that has the problem. I mean, we have our company, Golden Boy Promotions, which is coming up slowly but surely. We're probably already there and it's a big threat to him. It's a huge threat. But I think as days go by, it's going to get worse. And it's bad, but obviously we're going to hold our ground. We're not going to be intimidated by nobody, especially not Bob Arum.

The community work is central to who I am, ... I want to get across the idea in the community that all children have some golden boy or golden girl in them.

I've learned to not take media criticism personally, ... Seven or eight years ago, I would have said 'I hate the media there are people in it who are always bashing me.' Now I understand that, when someone writes something negative about me, it's part of the game. Media criticism will destroy you if you take it personally, so now I play with it. I stay away from politics. Some people criticize me for that, but it's a choice I've made. I have my views, but politics can be very sensitive. I've struggled so hard to get fans and people behind me for what I want to accomplish that it would be a mistake to support one party publicly and have the other party against me.

Bernard wants to do what Sugar Ray Robinson tried to do and go from middleweight to capture that light heavyweight title. He has nothing to lose, but this is a big challenge that will really motivate him.

But people get these crazy ideas, ... I went on my own roller-coaster ride to gain acceptance from Mexican-American fight fans. It was very difficult and frustrating. There were times when I felt like shouting, 'I can be your hero too.' And there were times, like my fights against Ike Quartey and even against Fernando Vargas, when I fought more aggressively and took more risks than I should have to please those fans.