Both Julio César Chávez and Oscar De La Hoya, heavy-weight champs, came clean to using drugs and drinking alcohol while training for some of the biggest fights of their career on the premiere epsiode of a new talk show on ESPN called “El Bar”.

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“The truth … during my training, it increased more and more,” Chávez told Aguilla. “For example, at times, I would leave spaces of a month and a half without using drugs or alcohol, but afterwards, I would shorten that time.”
“Then later, it would be one month, 20 days, later 15 days,” he added. “One week, four days, three days, so it would not show in the doping [tests.]”
Knowing all too well how the system worked, De La Hoya said he was strategic in his use of alcohol as to not be detected.
“We are very intelligent,” De La Hoya said. “We knew how to plan to work the system.”
Leading up to the last year of his career, the drinking became a regular occurrence as De La Hoya was training for his fight against Pacquiao in 2008.
“I was drinking during camp,” he said. “A week before the fight with Pacquiao, I was having wine, beers, because I said he is not going to beat me.”
“I have the height, the weight, he couldn’t beat me,” he admitted.
Since those days both Chávez and De La Hoya have gone into rehab to combat their addictions and have been able to remain sober for a few years.
While De La Hoya is focusing on his career as a promoter, Chávez still has close ties to the boxing world as his son tries to build upon his legacy.