De La Hoya’s self-titled debut album is a collection of love ballads in English and Spanish that feature the boxer’s sweet falsetto over starry-eyed songs like “Mi Amor” and “Tu Me Completas.” The album is produced and largely written by Rudy Perez (of Ricky Martin fame), but De La Hoya chose his own heartfelt version of the Bee Gees’ “I Run to You” as the first single. The song, like the rest of the CD, feels smoother than silk sheets on freshly Jacuzzied skin. But under all the lovelorn melodrama and often saccharine sentiments, De La Hoya can actually sing. His harmonies are compelling and warm, his delivery solid (and, most important, sultry). “This album is gonna touch more women’s hearts,” says De La Hoya, lounging on the couch of his Los Angeles hotel room next to a perfumed teddy bear that, he explains, was a gift from a “friend.” “People think I’m just an animal because boxing is such a brutal sport, but I actually shut [my emotions] down when I’m in the ring. If I didn’t, I would be hitting the guy and apologizing to him: ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.’ But with this album, now they’re going to say, ‘Wow, he really does have a big heart’.”
Pouring his heart out in song is nothing new for De La Hoya. His mother, a professional singer from Mexico, encouraged her son to sing along with her as they did chores in their East L.A. home. He started boxing at 5, but always considered himself more of an entertainer than a fighter. Above all, though, he thinks of himself as a ladies’ man. “Diane Warren wrote the song ‘With These Hands’ for me,” says De La Hoya, “but it isn’t about fighting. It’s about how my hands are this sensitive tool to love a woman.”
Almost any woman sitting across from De La Hoya would have to admit that the last thing on her mind is how those hands function in the ring. His skin is supermodel flawless, his eyes hypnotic and deep brown and his ebony hair fussed into a sleek do that seems to say “sexy yet manly.” But it’s precisely those looks, and De La Hoya’s celebrity status, that have prompted critics from the boxing world to say that De La Hoya’s more interested in protecting his beauteous face than drawing blood in the ring. Boxing journalist Michael Katz nicknamed the fighter “Chicken De La Hoya,” and former promoter Bob Arum recently suggested that Oscar “should retire from boxing.” “If I had a broken nose or a swollen eye, or if I was a really ugly fighter, the boxing world would accept me more,” says De La Hoya. “But thank God I’ve never been cut or knocked out. I’ve never been in a really tough war, where we don’t know where we’re at after the fight. Because I haven’t been beaten up, I’ll have that criticism for the rest of my boxing career.”
Opinions aside, the singing Oscar–with all his warm and fuzzy lines about love–may prove a handicap to the fighting Oscar. “I suppose it is bad to let my opponent know I have feelings,” says De La Hoya with a laugh, exposing perfect teeth and even nicer dimples. “Then it’s like, ‘Oh, I can kick his a–.’ But my fans are like 60 to 70 percent female anyway, so I don’t think it’ll make a big difference in how they view me as a gladiator.”
So what’s it going to be–fighter or full-time singing lover? “Obviously boxing is not gonna last much longer for me,” says De La Hoya. “You’re considered over the hill at 30 years old. So I want to pull back at 29, then maybe have one fight left and boom, retire at 30. Then I can sing until I’m 70.” And who’s gonna fight with him about that?
