Oscar De La Hoya vs. John Avila, billed as The Golden Return, was a professional boxing match contested on December 10, 1994, for the WBO lightweight title.

However, after contracting an unspecified virus that left him weak and unable to train for over a week, De La Hoya pulled out of the fight resulting in its temporary postponement.

[2] The fight was considered to be moved to the undercard of the James Toney–Roy Jones Jr. super middleweight title fight where De La Hoya was scheduled to make a title defense against a yet-to-be-named opponent on November 18, but Carl Griffith was eventually named De La Hoya's opponent for that date.

Though De La Hoya dominated the majority of the fight, winning every round on two scorecards and all but one on the third, minus the eighth when he was deducted a point for a low blow, he was unable to finish Avila off until about 2 minutes into the ninth.

De La Hoya had raised a welt on the right side of Avila's face near his eye which swelled massively as the fight went on.