Oscar De La Hoya vs.

Rafael Ruelas Rafael Ruelas (born 26 April 1971) is a Mexican former professional boxer, best known for his knockout loss to Oscar De La Hoya. Professional career Shortly after a TKO in 10 over Jorge Páez in 1992, Ruelas earned a shot at IBF lightweight ti ...

, billed as "La Batalla", was a professional boxing match contested on May 6, 1995 for the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

and

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

lightweight championships. The fight is notable for being the first pay-per-view headlined by De La Hoya, who would eventually go on to become the second biggest draw in boxing pay-per-view history.

Background

Only two years into his professional career, the then 22-year-old Oscar De La Hoya was the reigning WBO lightweight champion and had already captured two world titles in two different divisions after previously holding the WBO junior lightweight title. De La Hoya had just made the third successful defense against arguably his toughest opponent to date, defeating three-time super featherweight world champion

John John Molina Juan Molina (born March 17, 1965), better known as John John Molina in the world of boxing, is a former boxer whose career transcended boxing in Puerto Rico. A multiple time world champion, this boxer was also known as quite a socialite. Molina ...

by unanimous decision. De La Hoya's victory over Molina would officially set up a unification bout with IBF lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas, who had made two successful defenses after winning the title from Freddie Pendleton the previous year. The fight was heavily hyped and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

decided to air the bout on pay-per-view (via their pay-per-view service TVKO) after De La Hoya had made several high-rated appearances on ''

HBO World Championship Boxing ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' (in later years stylized in its title card as ''HBO Boxing – World Championship'') was an American sports television series on premium television network HBO. It premiered on January 22, 1973 with a fight that s ...

''. It was the first of 19 pay-per-view events that would be headlined by De La Hoya.

Fight

De La Hoya had little trouble with Ruelas and dominated the first round with his left jabs, landing 24 of them, while Ruelas was unable to get going offensively and didn't land a single jab in the round. Early in the round De La Hoya caught Ruelas with a shot that seemed to daze Rualas and affected his balance throughout the round. De La Hoya ended the fight in the second. With a little past a minute gone by, De La Hoya dropped Ruelas to the canvas with a left hook. Rualas got back up, and though clearly hurt, was allowed to continue. De La Hoya quickly dropped Ruelas for the second time with a right hand soon after. Referee Richard Steele again allowed Ruelas to continue, but De La Hoya again went on the attack and landed a flurry of unanswered punches, causing Steele to quickly step in and end the fight. at 1:43 of the round.De La Hoya Scores Second-Round Knockout of Ruelas
N.Y. Times article, 1995-05-07, Retrieved on 2014-03-17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De La Hoya, Ruelas 1995 in boxing 1995 in sports in Nevada May 1995 sports events in the United States Ruelas Boxing matches at Caesars Palace Lightweight championship matches