Alright, so I’m not the biggest sports fanatic out there but certain local sporting events take me back to my childhood and one of those events was back in June of 1998.

I was 11-years-old and I fondly remember hearing this commotion about a “Golden Boy” that was going to be coming to El Paso for a boxing match. The Golden Boy in question was none other than boxing world champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Oscar De La Hoya.

De La Hoya would come out of the Sun Bowl tunnel dressed in a full Mariachi outfit, Mariachi music playing full blast as he walked out and he would be greeted by 45,000 screaming fans. That summer boxing match would put El Paso in the spotlight making that match one of the most successful events in the history of El Paso. So successful that this 11-year-old girl would never forget it!

After that successful match, De La Hoya thanked El Paso and promised us that he would be back. He made good on that promise when he made his way back to El Paso to promote a fight at the Don Haskins Center back in June of 2021, but El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego is hoping De La Hoya will come back more often to bring even bigger boxing events to the Sun City.

Judge Samaniego posted a video on his Facebook post showing a conversation he had on the phone with the Golden Boy himself, Oscar De La Hoya.

Judge Samaniego started his caption by saying that he was fortunate to engage with three incredible athletes this week to discuss business opportunities in El Paso.

“I had a pleasant phone conversation with Oscar De La Hoya from Golden Boy Productions! It so happens that Ray Mancera, one of the top boxing advocates for El Paso, was having a meeting with Oscar. The essence of the discussion was about bringing boxing back to the El Paso/ Juarez community,” wrote Judge Samaniego.

In the video, Judge Samaniego tells De La Hoya that his coming to the borderland made El Paso happy. Judge Samaniego went on to encourage De La Hoya to come back to El Paso saying that it would mean so much to our community especially after the challenges we faced during the pandemic and August 3rd shooting.

“Anybody like yourself would make a big difference in getting some hope of going in the right direction for our community,” said Judge Samaniego.

De La Hoya can be heard on the other end of the phone call telling the Judge about the great history that El Paso has and how great boxing fans are in our community.

The nearly two minute phone call ended with De La Hoya saying four words that will have any local boxing fans screaming for joy, “Let’s bring it back.”

 

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