Ex-boxing champ De la Hoya admits addictions

Former boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya says he has contemplated suicide and has been going to rehabilitation to treat drug and alcohol dependency.

In an interview with Spanish-language network Univision that aired Tuesday, De la Hoya said he has been sober for three months after hitting rock bottom over the past two years.

“Rock bottom was recently,” De la Hoya said, according to an English-language transcript provided by the network. “Within a couple of years, just thinking if my life was even worth it. I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the courage to take my own life but I was thinking about it.”

De la Hoya says he has been sober for three months after undergoing treatment and joining Alcoholics Anonymous.

He said he was unfaithful to his wife and that they temporarily separated.

“We are obviously not talking a Tiger Woods here, but I was unfaithful,” De la Hoya said.

De la Hoya retired in 2009 after a 16-year career in which he won 10 world titles in six divisions and became boxing’s most popular fighter.

De la Hoya was thoroughly beaten by in his last fight. He won his last title in May 2006, beating Ricardo Mayorga in six rounds for the WBC light middleweight belt. He finished with a record of 39-6 and 30 knockouts.

Known as “The Golden Boy,” De la Hoya transcended his sport, using his bilingual skills to generate crossover appeal among Latinos and whites.

He began boxing at age 5, following in the path of his grandfather and father. He won an Olympic gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, delivering on a promise to his late mother, Cecilia, who died of breast cancer two years earlier.

“There were drugs, my drug of choice was cocaine and alcohol. Cocaine was recent. The last two years, last 2½ years and I depended more in the alcohol than the cocaine,” De La Hoya said. “It took me to a place where I felt safe, it took me to a place where I felt as if nobody can say anything to me, it took me to a place where I just can reach out and grab my mom.”