Oscar De La Hoya is hailed as one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time, and he has revealed which opponent from his stacked résumé gave him his toughest fight.

De La Hoya became boxing’s first six-division world champion when he decisioned Felix Sturm to claim the WBO middleweight title in 2004, following on from his success at super-featherweight and all other weights in-between 130lbs and 160lbs.

Five years later, De La Hoya was joined in his exclusive club by the legendary Manny Pacquiao, who had knocked him out just a few months prior to matching his feat and has now been linked to a shock showdown with Shakur Stevenson.

Despite the loss to Pacquiao, another fight came to mind for De La Hoya when naming his toughest, as he told Froch on Fighting that it was his 1999 split-decision triumph over Ike Quartey that takes that spot.

“Ike Quartey [gave me my toughest fight]. I fought him when he was 34-0-1, nobody wanted to fight him, he was from Ghana in Africa but I fought everybody. I didn’t care. I wanted to fight the very best. 

“I remember saying ‘yeah, I will fight him,’. I told Bob Arum that I would fight him, no problem. He dropped me in the first round, I drop him in the third round, he drops me again and I end up dropping him three times, close fight.

“In the 12th round, that has to be the most memorable, most exciting, most fun round that I have ever been in. I hit him with 40 punches, unanswered, today – they would have stopped the fight, but back then they’d let you go until you kill him! That was really the way that it was. 

“I hit him 40 times, in the ropes, unanswered. I would look at the referee like [he needs to step in]. The final bell rang, we both put our hands up, it felt like Rocky – it was pretty cool.

“That has been the most satisfying, most entertaining but toughest fight that I ever had.”

Quartey, who had held the WBA welterweight world title prior to his meeting with De La Hoya, moved up to super-welterweight following the defeat but failed to recapture world honours before retiring in 2006 with a record of 37-4-1.