Is this the most satisfying win in boxing?

Appropriately dubbed “Bad Blood” by the press and the promotional posters that followed — the story of Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas is a clash of two styles ending in revenge.

On 14 September 2002 in Las Vegas, two fighters with distinctly obvious distaste among each other took part in arguably one of the biggest fights in early noughties history.

There are a number of striking similarities between Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas despite the five year age difference between each other.

Both were Southern Californians of Mexican heritage, both were former Olympians and both were former champions in the 150 pounds weight class.

De La Hoya was seen as the more seasoned pro incredibly achieving his fifth world title in his five different weight classes while Vargas was up and coming having become the youngest boxer in history to win a light middleweight world title at 21 years of age.

Before a punch had been thrown, or a press conference had been scheduled, both fighters engaged in a series of words years before representing a genuine hatred of each other.

The dislike between the two allegedly began in 1993 while Vargas was training at De La Hoya’s boxing camp after both of the fighters were training together.

While jogging alongside each other, Vargas supposedly slipped into a snowbank and reached out an arm to De La Hoya for help but laughed as he continued jogging and held a grudge ever since.

After a succession of bad-mouthed words against each other in the build-up to a potential bout, a fight was subject to a number of back and forth’s with booth fighters continuing to disagree on the terms.

The fight was eventually scheduled for early 2002 but De La Hoya had pulled out due to a hand injury he had sustained in training leading to Vargas continuously mocking De La Hoya on live television.

In the build-up to the fight Vargas was capturing a lot of plaudits and gained a Mexican-American fanbase that had previously been fond of De La Hoya’s due to Vargas’s aggressive approach reminiscent of the Mexican “mano a mano” style.

Vargas went as far as to say De La Hoya runs around a lot because he was scared, and stated: “Mexican’s don’t run around like that” and was able to bring out boxing legend Julio César Chávez in his ring walk representing the shifting of Mexican support to Vargas.

The war of words continued, and De La Hoya’s Golden Boy image became increasingly questioned on whether he had enough “fire” or “hunger” to become a champion in a different weight class.

During the fight, HBO commentator Jim Lampley even questioned his desire to win, commenting: “Is it possible to put in the hard work and disciplined training day after day after day required for De La Hoya to fight his best fight when you already have the 100m in the bank.”

While the WBC, the WBA and the lineal super welterweight championship were on the line, there was also a sense of bragging rights to be won. Who really was the “The Golden Boy”, and who could follow in Julio César Chávez’s footsteps by becoming the next great Mexican champion.

At this point in both their careers De La Hoya hadn’t fought for 15 months and Vargas hadn’t fought for nearly a year with so many hurdles before the fight was made.

Despite the question marks over De La Hoya, most fight pundits picked De La Hoya to win using his slicker and more refined boxing skills but Vargas had a very good chance at overpowering him with his bigger frame and more aggressive style.

As the fight took place, both were evenly matched in punches landed but Vargas was landing significantly more power punches as he embraced his renowned aggressive style.

De La Hoya was landing more accurate punches utilizing his left jab effectively but the late Emmanuel Steward in the commenters box was more impressed with Vargas’s power punches doing damage to De La Hoya’s frame even if they were missing.

By round five, the fight cards were fairly even, or more leaning towards Vargas with De La Hoya sustaining more damage than he had previously done so before.

De La Hoya at this point was not utilizing his footwork appropriately to gain enough power in his shots, and instead trying to focus more on more slick defensive work that could wear-out Vargas in the later rounds.

As round six came along, De La Hoya began to ramp up the pace even further by hitting fairly sluggish Vargas with clean shots, and by round eight he had opened a cut up with Vargas’s eye.

Despite Vargas’s attempts to come back in the ninth round by catching De La Hoya with a with a right hook combination, Vargas started to miss significantly more shots with the slicker De La Hoya outmaneuvering him.

By round eleven, Oscar De La Hoya stunned Vargas by cleanly knocking him down using his signature left hook.

As Vargas got up he was overwhelmed with a flurry of punches finishing him before referee Joe Cortez stepped in stunning a significantly pro-Vargas crowd.

It’s rumored boxings Golden Boy hit his opponent with around 10–15 punches in succession before Joe Cortez stopped the bout.

De La Hoya had won, and won in empathic style.

Not only had De La Hoya beaten an arch-rival, but he had also claimed the lineal title in a new weight class being the man to beat.

He had answered any question marks over his desire to win, whether he could cut it at a new weight-class and whether he had the ability to punch by knocking out the significantly bigger Vargas.

As fickle as boxing can be, boxing fans declared the Golden Boy had returned, and as far as career-defining wins go, this could definitely be up there as one of boxings most satisfying wins.