Only two years into his professional career, the then 22-year-old Oscar De La Hoya was the reigning WBO lightweight champion and had already captured two world titles in two different divisions after previously holding the WBO junior lightweight title.

De La Hoya had just made the third successful defense against arguably his toughest opponent to date, defeating three-time super featherweight world champion John John Molina by unanimous decision.

De La Hoya's victory over Molina would officially set up a shot at his first major world title against IBF lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas,[2] who had made two successful defenses after winning the title from Freddie Pendleton the previous year.

The fight was heavily hyped and HBO decided to air the bout on pay-per-view (via their pay-per-view service TVKO) after De La Hoya had made several high-rated appearances on HBO World Championship Boxing.

With a little past a minute gone by, De La Hoya dropped Ruelas to the canvas with a left hook.