'I never used my fighting skills to confront anybody. As a matter of fact, I never had a street fight. Never. To be honest, I was scared. I didn't know how to fight in the street.
I didn't like the uncertainty of it all, the fact you could find yourself on the ground forced to wrestle rather than box, the frightening possibilities of a no-holds-barred confrontation, the realisation that one opponent could quickly turn into two or three as friends piled on, and, the ultimate fear for me, getting hurt seriously enough to endanger my career. Once, when I was fifteen, a couple of guys tried to throw punches at me, see what I had. I just ducked and dodged and walked away. They yelled, 'Ah, you're nothing. You're not a fighter.' They could say anything they wanted, but there was no way I was going to play their game. If they wanted to put on gloves, yeah, let's go. I liked the comfort of the ring, where the rules were set and a referee was there to enforce them.'
- Oscar De La Hoya
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