Oscar De La Hoya's relationship with his father and with Clancey

I can reveal that it was Clancy who recommended Emanuel Steward to the De La Hoya camp after they let go, Jesus Rivero. When Steward was brought on board things began to go downhill in the relationship between Steward and De La Hoya's father, Joel snr. The main part of the reason was that they differed on the amount of rounds De La Hoya should spar. It was 1997 and he fought four times that year. Whitaker, Kamau, Camacho and Rivera. Steward reckoned he should only be sparring around 30 rounds, Joel disagreed and thought his son should be sparring more. Also, Robert Alcazar was back stabbing behind Steward's back and telling Joel snr everything that was going on in camp. Joel, also wasn't happy as he thought Steward was spending more time with Lennox Lewis. Steward split from the De La Hoya camp a week before the Rivera fight in Dec, 1997. It says in Oscar's book, "American Son", that Clancy was brought on board as a corner consultant before the Carr fight. This is wrong, as he first worked the corner for the fight Rivera. Clancy came into De La Hoya's camp a week or two before fights to have input and he wasn't the head trainer in all the fights he worked Oscar's corner, it was Alcazar. Some of Oscar's camp were split on what the best strategy would be for the Trinidad fight. Half of the camp were favored Oscar's being aggressive, the other half were of the opinion that he should box Trinidad. Clancy was one of those who said that De La Hoya should box him. However, the advice he gave in the last three rounds to Oscar was to box....Not run away as Oscar did. Clancy departed after the Trinidad defeat as he was blamed for the strategy as Oscar lost his first fight.

 

are we talking about Arcel or Clancy ? or both ?

i'm surprised if Arcel was involved at all.

 

De La Hoya himself said in American Son that he thought Steward was a very nice guy, but he also said he grew dissatisfied with Steward because he felt Steward didn't push him as hard as he wanted to be pushed in camp. He said Emmanuel was always willing to give Oscar a day off "rest is more important than work", and that he played a lot of basketball and ping pong with Steward as well. In short, Oscar wanted a more serious and spartan atmosphere, which is a shame, because I think he and Steward really could have worked well together if Oscar was willing to work with him longer.

He goes on to speak admiringly of how tough and rigid Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s training camps were, that they were very strict, structured, and militaristic, and he did not get much downtime or rest at all with Floyd Sr. cracking the whip on him.

With Clancy, DLH says in his book that he was brought in mainly to assist Alcazar and serve as an assistant/advisory type role. DLH does sound a little bitter about Clancy, though, because he says himself that he, and most of his camp, wanted to come out aggressively and exchange with Trinidad and try to knock him out- probably a risky strategy, but Trinidad did have a questionable chin, DLH had a granite chin, and there's good reason to believe DLH could survive Trinidad's power but not vice-versa. DLH hit like a truck at 147. Clancy was adamant Oscar should box and refuse to exchange with Trinidad at all costs though, and eventually his view prevailed. DLH said in his book that he's convinced he would've stopped Trinidad had anyone but Clancy been in his corner that night.

As for his father, DLH seems to have had a rather strained relationship with him up until the Trinidad fight. There was a Beyond the Glory episode centered on DLH, and he says he was always afraid of losing or disappointing his father, that his father was pretty crazy in terms of driving him to be a great boxer from an early age (though from the sounds of it not nearly as psychotic as Roy Jones' father was to him.) DLH said he broke down in the locker room and flipped out a little after the Trinidad "loss", and was surprised to be reassured and comforted by his father, that he did beat Trinidad in his eyes, etc. From there, it seemed like their relationship improved, though you can still tell from any DLH interview that he was always far more fond of his mother than his father.

 

Arcel? Gil Clancy, you mean? He was a corner consultant. He came into camp a week or two before De La Hoya's fights to work camp, then work with the corner with head trainer, Robert Alcazar.

 

it seems that Clancy was just there as a fight strategist.
the problem with being just the strategist is that you might get lumbered with a lot of blame if the fight doesn't go right, as seems to be the case here.

 

With Oscar fighting 4 times in 1997, a day off was correct, as was Steward's view. I knew all about the De La Hoya-Steward relationship years ago. And know a lot of stuff thats not common knowledge to most boxing fans on here on the split. De La Hoya admitted just after the split from Steward that he had no problems working with him. The main reason for the split was the amount of rounds Oscar's father thought his son should spar for fights. Steward was quoted as saying, "No way should a world class fighter like Oscar be sparring over 100 rounds for a fight when he's busy fighting 4 times a year". Which ties in with this that you posted, "but he also said he grew dissatisfied with Steward because he felt Steward didn't push him as hard as he wanted to be pushed in camp. He said Emmanuel was always willing to give Oscar a day off, rest is more important than work and that he played a lot of basketball and ping pong with Steward as well" A difference of opinion lead to Steward being fired. At this point in Oscar's career, his father had a big say in how things went.

De La Hoya also said in his book that Clancy was brought in to work with him before the Carr fight. This is quite astonishing info as it's Oscar giving out this info and not the author. Clancy was brought in a week before the Rivera fight....FACT!

I can reveal more about the De La Hoya-Steward relationship. Bob Arum wasn't happy with Steward ether, as he attended the Holyfield-Moorer rematch with Oscar and his girlfriend. It's well known that Steward and Don King are close friends. Arum was paranoid that Steward was trying to set-up a meeting between Oscar and King for the possiblity of Oscar leaving Arum to go with King as his promoter. Steward said no meeting between Oscar and King ever took place.

 

I thought I was stupid not knowing Arcel had worked with DLH.

 

Interesting, the Oscar-King stuff you mentioned. As savvy a businessman as Oscar is, leaving Arum for King in the late 90s would have been a smart move I think. King would have seen him as the crown jewel of his promotional empire and looked to take care of him. No way DLH gets screwed vs Trinidad or Mosley II if King was promoting him.

And it was also enlightening that DLH claimed he had no problems working with Steward. Shame he didn't stay with him and deferred to his dad on the sparring rounds issue. In spite of all the versatility and style overhauls DLH showed in his career, I always thought Steward would have been an ideal guy to train him. I think DLH would have been at his best had he stayed with Steward and Steward tweaked his style to fight kind of like a southpaw mini Lennox Lewis- using the jab/pawing the jab to set up for a big left cross, or using his long/wiry frame to tie opponents up in close and crack them with the left uppercut (much like Lennox did with right uppercuts to guys like Grant, Vitali, etc) would have served DLH very well. I think a style like that/Steward's relaxed camps would have helped him have less stamina issues too- a lot of people speculate that the Spartan camps DLH later had with guys like Floyd Sr. simply left him worn down by the time of his fights.

 

The thread was about De La Hoya and a trainer. Sometimes, threads drift off the rails, slightly. Hundreds of threads are like that on here.....Thousands, probably.

 

Stop being a moaning faced **** lol. I'm sure some people will get the thread back on track and exactly the way you want it to be....Strictly regarding, Arcel...Or is it Clancy? :good

 

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