Oscar De La Hoya vs. Javier Castillejo

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Javier Castillejo, billed as The Quest, was a professional boxing match contested on June 23, 2001, for the WBC super welterweight championship.^[2]

The Quest

Date	June 23, 2001
Venue	MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Title(s) on the line	WBC super welterweight title
Tale of the tape
Boxer Javier Castillejo Oscar De La Hoya Nickname "El Lince de Parla (The Lynx of Parla)" "The Golden Boy" Hometown Parla, Madrid, Spain East Los Angeles, California, U.S. Purse $800,000[1] $5,000,000[1] Pre-fight record 51–4 (34 KO) 33–2 (27 KO) Age 33 years, 3 months 28 years, 4 months Height 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) 5 ft 10+1⁄2 in (179 cm) Weight 154 lb (70 kg) 154 lb (70 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition WBC Super Welterweight Champion WBC No. 1 Ranked Welterweight The Ring No. 4 ranked pound-for-pound fighter 3-division world champion
Result
De La Hoya wins via 12-round unanimous decision (119-108, 119-108, 119-108)

After 12 rounds, De La Hoya defeated Castillejo to take the WBC and lineal super welterweight titles. With his win, De La Hoya then tied with Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns as a five-division world champion.^[3]

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao makes his debut in the United States with his bout against Lehlohonolo Ledwaba.

Javier Castillejo, aged 33, was considered the underdog before his fight with 28-year-old Oscar De La Hoya, with the latter at his prime both "physically and emotionally". However Castillejo, who was making his US debut, predicted he would pull off the upset "I am going to show Oscar and the rest of the world who the champ is, and then I will be the better-known fighter and the favourite."^[4]

On the undercard IBF junior featherweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba faced former flyweight champion Manny Pacquiao.^[5]

At the time, Ledwaba had been ranked as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers and was scheduled to face Mexican Enrique Sánchez.^[6] However, Sanchez was injured two weeks before the undercard bout, and matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz replaced him with Pacquiao, who would thus have his debut in the U.S..^[7] The fight also became the first match of Pacquiao to have Freddie Roach as his coach.^[8]

Pacquiao would knock Ledwaba down three times before the referee would stop the bout in the 6th round giving him a TKO victory.

The fight is generally considered as a significant event for both boxers' careers.^[7][9]

Ledwaba considered the bout to be the most difficult fight in his career.^[10] He remarked that during the bout, he "tried almost everything. I'm a boxer who used to think. I always tried to outwork an opponent, but it was totally different against Manny. [...] I was flat-footed, but he was on his toes all the time, so he was hard to hit."^[7] His promoter Rodney Berman later expressed the thought that Ledwaba's defeat to the then-unknown Pacquiao caused him to lose motivation in boxing; Ledwaba did not have anymore world level fights after the match, and retired from the profession by 2006.^[7] For Pacquiao, he won $40,000 for his victory,^[9] and later stated that alongside his other early fights, he fondly remembers his fight against Ledwaba because "[t]hat's the one that got me here to the U.S. and after that my career really started."^[8]

De La Hoya was able to control most of the fight and was able to knock down Castillejo in the final seconds of the fight. After 12 rounds De La Hoya won the bout via unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring the fight 119–108 in his favor.^[3]

On October 8, 2001 it was announced that De La Hoya would defend his championship against the WBC No.1 challenger Roman Karmazin, however on November 8, 2001 it was announced the fight was cancelled due to torn cartilage in his left wrist.^[11]

Confirmed bouts:^[12]

•   Jermain Taylor defeats   Marvin Smith via unanimous decision.