Boxer Oscar De La Hoya opens up and shares his personal struggles for the first time in HBO’s The Golden Boy. In the first trailer for the two-part documentary, the Olympic gold medalist reveals the last 45 years of his life have been pretty dark, and now he’s ready to address his true emotions and lay out his story without any sugarcoating.
The Golden Boy premieres on HBO on July 24, 2023 at 9pm ET/PT, followed by part two on July 25.
Fernando Villena (Dear Rider, Any One of Us) directed the documentary and Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips, Mario Lopez, Jeffrey Stearns, and David Wendell executive produce. Additional executive producers include HBO’s Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, and Bentley Weiner.
The Plot:
By the age of 19, Oscar De La Hoya was an Olympic boxing gold medalist, a multi-world title-winning professional boxer, a hometown hero and a role model to his Mexican-American community in East Los Angeles. Nicknamed “The Golden Boy,” De La Hoya – with his good looks, electric charisma, and heartfelt story of winning Olympic gold for his dying mother — rocketed to national prominence as a superstar both in and outside the ring. But all was not what it appeared to be behind that polished facade.
Told in De La Hoya’s own words through a series of candid interviews with him and those closest to him, and featuring rare archival footage, The Golden Boy peels back the layers of this celebrated yet complicated figure, exploring his triumphs and turmoil to reveal a man struggling to come to terms with lifelong demons and the impossible burden of a nickname he couldn’t live up to.
