Is Oscar De La Hoya Boxing's Charlie Sheen?... By Martin Wade
Check the date... No, it isn't Groundhog Day, it's another sex
scandal involving Oscar De La Hoya that registers high even by
TMZ standards. His recent disclosure of serious substance and
alcohol abuse following the Mayweather-Ortiz debacle was
merely the tip of the iceberg; as with all celebrity
debauchery there's always "more". Boxing in the words of many
is a vocation of desperation; there are few men of Ivy League
potential and "options" so we, lovers of the noble art, have
no naïve notions about "how" fighters party when the gloves
are cut off. Boxing is notable for hard men, many of them
louts and hard to be around - especially at the height of
their notoriety and wealth - and yet none of them are
fortunate. Nobody in Boxing has been more "fortunate" than
Oscar De La Hoya, so maybe the degree of his "issues" are
subjective in a way, when many fighters beg and scrape for a
payday he's never had to give it any real thought.
More $, More Problems?
Oscar,
like most celebrities who brush up against darkness, is a
child star. He was making inordinate amounts of money long
before Floyd Mayweather had summoned the gall to christen
himself "Money." Although not yet 40, like many child stars it
seems he's been with us forever; we plug him into our
consciousness right around the time Mike Tyson (another child
star) went off the rails. Ridiculously handsome and marketed
to attract teenaged Mexican girls, he drew more women to his
weigh-ins than Tim Bradley does to a fight. I used to
wonder what that can do to a guy's mentality in such an
unforgiving, dangerous sport. How can you be mentally tough
when women are paying for the "right" to throw their panties
at you? And who'd have thought back then he was wearing them?
What followed were historic lapses of focus and context, it
seemed that when the fight was on the line De La Hoya never
seemed to know the appropriate response. Unlike Ray Leonard,
who went to drugs when Boxing was gone, whispers were that
outside of the ring Oscar needed an Angelo Dundee to tell him
(in his life) "you're blowing it kid." Oscar seemed hell-bent
not on his addictions as a replacement for boxing but as his
baseline, even using alcohol while training for some of his
biggest fights.
Reading
through the sordid details of his latest indiscretion, one of
his reported statements (under the influence) about
identifying with Charlie Sheen hit me like one of Oscar's
vaunted left hands. How many times have we had a few too many
and said some things we didn't have the balls to say sober?
Why else do they call it liquid courage? Oscar De La Hoya was
never meant to be the Latin Ray Leonard; he may be more
correctly our version of the train wreck actor who isn't shy
about letting everyone know he's "winning." Charlie Sheen is
the sleazy epitome of why you should not envy celebrity; he's
the "Ugly American" behind every foreigner's bias against this
country.
The similarities are uncanny...
Both Oscar De La Hoya and Charlie Sheen were
products of American feeder systems, the Nepotism of Hollywood
and the Olympics. Both men were teen idols and pretty much
benefited from a built-in audience of young women who, let's
just say aren't exactly aficionados. When you're marketed for
hormonal response the money flows like water and both Sheen
and De La Hoya lost perspective fast. Sheen's lack of
self-awareness was normal by Hollywood standards, but Oscars
seemed a bit out-placed. Someone once said that Hollywood is
filled with broken, extremely insecure people, so it is no
wonder that De La Hoya always seemed in his element among
fellow celebrities. As "insiders" with prodigious talent,
neither had to take a road like that traveled by Marvin Hagler;
their temptations were indulged in their early 20's when most
people are still paying dues. Both men have been out-distanced
by peers who came from further back, and both men are so rich
they don't seem to care.
Sheen and De
La Hoya were perceived as "Non-Latin" for different reasons...
Growing up in the 80's and not seeing
minorities represented in the wave of teen age movies like
"The Breakfast Club" the message was clear. Middle America was
only interested in the celluloid angst of cute white kids;
brotha's were usually resigned to the stereotypical athlete or
jheri-curl wearing break dancers. Charlie Sheen was young,
talented and in my eyes white when he broke through as a star
in Oliver Stone's "Platoon". Only later did I realize he was
Latino; Carlos Estevez -like his father Martin Sheen- took the
route of an Anglo-Saxon moniker to ease his ascent to the
bedroom walls of lily white teen aged girls. Oscar De La Hoya,
a proud Mexican from East L.A. struggled early in his career
because his packaging and mannerisms were neither accepted,
nor trusted by hardcore Mexican fans. Oscar's mugging of icon
Julio Cesar Chavez was perceived by many as such an affront to
his culture, that only when he "put it on" Fernando Vargas did
he earn a little respect. But like Sheen's sitcom success with
"Two and a Half Men," it all seemed a fleeting -yet well paid
glimmer of careers- that should have achieved so much more.
Both guys also made anti-Semitic remarks
against men who made them richer than they ever deserved when
negotiations or competition got tense. Oscar made an alleged
Anti-Semitic remark about Arum when he was making a run at
taking over Boxing and Sheen did him one better by calling
"Two and a Half Men" creator Chuck Lorre "Hymie." Go figure!
Both
Sheen and De La Hoya shined brightest early in their career,
both suggested the equals of Marlon Brando and Ray Leonard; and now
both are parody. Charlie Sheen's "Winning" is a defense
mechanism to divert the listener to his bank account and take
the focus off his stark illness. It makes sense that Oscar
would tell "the complainant" on that drug filled night that he
too was "winning" and identified with Sheen. Boxing history is
a hardcopy written in stone and winning more of the biggest
fights than you lost earns you a lifetime pass even money
can't buy you. If you are an addict and ill committed to your
craft, yet still rewarded more than anyone else, it can't help
in the recovery process. Most addiction is tinged with
narcissism; why else would it be hardest for celebrities to
get clean? When the checks keep coming is there ever a rock
bottom? How many alcoholics go home to Puerto Rican sex
symbols and own the leading trade publication in their
industry? How many drive the economy of a monopoly with no
interference from the Federal Government? My hope is for some
semblance of "Rock Bottom" for Oscar, because there are
children who deserve more than you or I could have ever asked
from him in the championship rounds. But in case he insists on
continuing towards this train wreck he should take counsel
with Sheen; a true veteran of the debased "Rock Star from
Mars" lifestyle.
If you're going to "Party like a Rock star" have some respect.
Charlie
Sheen has been doing this for close to 30 years, and he's been
able to survive despite surrounding himself with porn stars,
druggies and leeches. Charlie abides by the "code."
He pays
for the party and takes on all the public outrage and
police intervention. You know. Heat. He may be legendary for
calling his wives vile names; but he gets away with it because
his ex-wives are rich in their own right. The porn stars and
prostitutes that he surrounds himself with are called
"goddesses" and he would never stiff them with a hotel bill.
Sheen is wise to the laws of the jungle, that people on the
fringes of society are more vicious and have nothing to lose.
So Sheen assumes all of the overhead and possible losses for
his behavior, something that De La Hoya must learn. If De La
Hoya can't learn the laws of discretion, he'll be surrounded by
more attorneys than women willing to share their "hooker
shoes" with him. It's up to him, but personally I'd like
for him to come out of this situation with a stronger sense of who he was before
"money" happened to him. Boxing is screwed up as it is, we
have no need for our most powerful promoter and (like it or
not) ambassador to be modeling his life after Charlie Sheen.
.. I mean Carlos Estevez.
If he can clean his life up, Boxing as well as his loved ones, will
be WINNING.
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