 In 1989, he won the National Golden Gloves title in the bantamweight division.In 1990, at age 17, he won the U.S. National Championship at featherweight and was the youngest U.S. boxer at that year's Goodwill Games, winning a gold medal.The joy of victory was tempered by the news that his mother, Cecilia Gonzales De La Hoya (November 22, 1950 – October 28, 1990), was terminally ill with breast cancer.