Former Super Featherweight and Welterweight champion, Oscar De La Hoya has disclosed that he could not walk for two weeks following his bout with Ghana’s Ike Quartey in the late 1990s.
The Mexican-American boxer fought Ike Quartey in 1999 with his World Boxing Council welterweight title on the line in a bout widely regarded as one of the most epic in history, with De La Hoya recording a knockout victory in the 12th round.
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The win over Quartey brought De La Hoya’s record to 30 wins and no losses, however, he has now revealed that the fight was so tough that he could barely walk for two weeks after it had taken place.
“I was fighting this kid, Ike Quartey, he was from Africa, from Ghana. And he was a tough, tough guy,” De La Hoya said while speaking on Power 105’s ‘The Breakfast Club’.
“I mean this guy was tough and he hit me with everything. He [even] dropped me twice, but I think I also dropped him three times and I needed the last round to win. And I finally won, but I couldn’t walk for like two weeks afterward because I was so sour and it was painful.”
He added that the bout against the Ghana greatly changed his life, insisting it made him reflect on the idea of becoming a boxing promoter.
“Right there and then [after the Ike Quartey bout I said to myself I need something to do after boxing. So I decided to become a promoter and help these young guys out there to establish their own careers,” he said.
Ike Quartey is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers to ever emerge from Ghana and fought at the light-welterweight and light-middleweight divisions.
Quartey turned professional in 1988, a day short of his nineteenth birthday. He started his boxing career under the guidance of Yoofi Boham, without doubt, the most successful manager in Ghana, and also the father-in-law of former World boxing champion Azumah Nelson.
Boham got Quartey recognized as a boxer on the international scene. Boham managed Quartey alongside Alfred “The Cobra” Kotey and gave them the names Bazooka and Cobra. Quartey and Kotey were so close that many thought they were brothers.
Quartey began his professional career with a 2nd-round knockout of Mama Mohamed. Most of Quartey’s early fights were staged in Ghana before he relocated to France.
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The fight between Ike Quartey and Oscar De La Hoya took place in Las Vega in 2013 and was described as the fight that promised to test The Golden Boy and a fight that delivered on it’s promise.
WATCH Video of the fight below:
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