These days the eight-time world champion known as the Golden Boy is gearing up for two very different fights. On Sept. 18 he'll take on Bernard "the Executioner" Hopkins for the unified world middleweight championship on HBO Pay-Per-View. And on Sept. 7 his new reality series The Next Great Champ bows on FOX amid controversy that the concept was pilfered from a rival network. The show, in which De La Hoya mentors a dozen aspiring prizefighters, will be duking it out with The Contender, NBC's Sylvester Stallone-backed series, which airs in November (see box). Executive producer De La Hoya is not afraid to take the gloves off. "Our show will be better," he says, pointing to Champ's look at the athletes' personal lives. "It's a side of boxing you don't normally see."
For De La Hoya, 31, that side includes the strain of being apart from Puerto Rican pop singer Corretjer, 30, his wife of three years. Early in their courtship, though, "he wasn't really used to treating a woman like a lady," she says. "He wasn't used to the courting, but he learned." The couple are in the midst of a two-month separation so De La Hoya can train. "It's tough," says Corretjer, who met the prizefighter in 2000, when both were signed to the same record label. (De La Hoya's debut CD that year earned a Grammy nod.)
His music career is now on hold, but boxing has always been "in my blood," he says. One of three kids born to Joel Sr., 65, a former pro boxer, and Cecilia, a seamstress and singer, De La Hoya grew up in Los Angeles amid a family of fighters. "My father said, Tm going to create a champion,' " recalls De La Hoya, who at 6 competed in his first match. "I had these boxing gloves that covered me all the way over my elbows. But I didn't care. I just enjoyed being in the ring."
At 19, as a lightweight, De La Hoya nabbed gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The achievement came just two years after his mother died of breast cancer at 39. "Overnight I could buy a home, a car, but I also had horrible nights just thinking, 'My mom is not here,' " he says, noting that soon after, "I bought a Ferrari. I blew a lot. I had no understanding of what I had."
Having lost "millions" that first year, "I had nothing," says De La Hoya. "That's when I realized that something had to change." He hired a new business manager and refocused his priorities, and today he commands more than $20 million per fight and oversees Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes a stable of nationally ranked boxers. He also oversees a nonprofit foundation that supports children in the East L.A. neighborhood where he grew up. "I have a food stamp in my wallet," says De La Hoya. "I've kept it to remind myself of where I'm from."
He is considering retiring after the upcoming Hopkins fight—"once you hit 30 in boxing, you're over the hill"—and hopes to start a family with Corretjer. (He shares custody of two children from previous relationships, including daughter Atiana, 5, with 1995 Miss USA Shanna Moakler, from whom he split in '00.) "I don't really know what it's like to be a father who's there every day, and I want to feel that," he says. And when he finally does throw in the towel on his boxing career, he plans to pursue his other passion: golf. "It's a sport I know I'm going to play until I'm 80," says the 12-handicapper. "And no punches are thrown back!"
Michelle Tauber. Ulrica Wihlborg in Big Bear take, Calif.
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- Ulrica Wihlborg.
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