Oscar De La Hoya says ‘The Golden Boy’ documentary is ‘like therapy’

He was one of the world’s most famous athletes. Handsome, talented, rich.

He made over $200 million during his career. Captured eleven world titles in six different weight divisions and boy, did the women love him.

Not talking Ali, Leonard, or Mayweather.

We’re talking something more golden.

To chronicle it all, HBO has a two-part documentary airing July 24 and 25 (9 pm each day) on Max entitled “The Golden Boy.”

Yes, it’s about the career in and out of the ring of the one and only Oscar De La Hoya — The Golden Boy.

Be forewarned, the doc is a hot mess.

A really hot… must watchable mess.

De La Hoya even admits that “the last 45 years have been pretty dark.”

The doc covers his rise from a youngster from rough East LA to a 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist, to being a multiple world champion, to being an absentee father, multiple sexual scandals, drinking and cocaine problems, rehabs and pain.

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And those photos of him in women’s lingerie? It was him.

A lot of self-inflicted pain.

So why does the 50-year-old De La Hoya want to relive the pain in his life?

“Fighting kept me a little sane,” he declares, in speaking with the Daily News. He seemed more relaxed now than in the doc. “It kept me a little balanced. When I retired, my life didn’t have a purpose.

“So, all these years of basically living hell, it was difficult to maneuver my life with all the pain and not having answers.”

Then after counseling something must have clicked.

“I just realized that it’s never too late,” he explains. “Why not do it for yourself and tell the story that is going to literally set me free.

“It’s almost like therapy.”

Smoothly shot by director Fernando Villena, the contrast comes alive when shooting cutaways of De La Hoya speaking. Those are in stark black and white and show a scruffy-looking former champ.

The stylish suits and ties of a young, vibrant De La Hoya are replaced by a tense-looking, hoodie-wearing, older man in pain without his high-voltage smile.

The fight footage is something all fight fans will remember whether it’s his battles with Chavez, Whitaker, Trinidad or Mosley — some wins, some losses.

But there also the knockout losses to Bernard Hopkins, his partner at Golden Boy, and his retirement by the fast hands of Manny Pacquaio in 2008.

He finished with a pro record of 39-6 with 30 kayos. At one point it used to be putting butts in seats that made you king of boxing. Think Joe Louis fighting Max Schmeling in 1938 at the old Yankee Stadium in front of 70,000 fans.

De La Hoya had the Midas touch when it came to Pay-Per-View (PPV). The financial blueprint now is paying eyeballs.

From 1995 to 2008, De La Hoya had 19 fights on PPV. He generated over 14 million buys for over 700 million dollars. He hit the magical one million buys mark four times and 900,000 three times.

“HBO needed more than good fighters. HBO needed stars,” acknowledges Seth Abraham, former president of HBO Sports during the De La Hoya run. “The reason for that is all of the fights were in prime time. The boxing audience by itself is not big enough to sustain the kind of money HBO was spending on boxing.

“We needed stars. Oscar was not only a wonderful fighter and very charismatic in the ring, but he was a star and that’s how HBO built its marquee lineup.”

The doc shows the trappings of celebrity. The screaming young girls, an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, flying on private jets, playing golf.

Oscar being Oscar.

“I’ve always been a nice guy,” he says, though the dark clouds remain.

The allegations of sexual assault/rape (settled out of court but saying it never happened), the kids he didn’t see until much later when they were grown with emptiness on both sides, showed his major personal flaws.

There was the nasty legal battle with ex-fiancé Shanna Moakler and eventual divorce from wife Millie Corretjer who he took to the Latin Grammys while still with Moakler.

Even the story about his dying mother telling him to win the gold medal was a lie.

“It wasn’t her dying wish, like, ‘Son, please win the gold medal.’ It wasn’t like that,” he reveals.

He continued with the lie, and he says that’s how his life went. In his darkest moments, De La Hoya thought about ending it.

“One time after the second Chavez fight, I was driving 175 miles per hour on the freeway and just hoping that something happened,” he exclaims. “Even in the Pacquiao fight, I was hoping he would land that one punch and just end it all.”

He never did though he thought about it two or three times.

“I’m such a coward,” he says. “I would never ever do that, but yeah, it comes across.

“I told my girlfriend, I was depressed maybe 10, 11 times throughout my life, but back then you couldn’t say anything. Back then you couldn’t express yourself, especially in my [Mexican-American] culture.”

He kept it all inside. If he had said something, raised issues about family pressure and depression, he knew the reaction would be, “Oh, what a p—-!”

Now, he talks.

De La Hoya has six kids, and their relationships are works in progress.

“It’s still not 100 percent,” he admits, “but it’s getting better. There’s always going to be something missing in their heart. You know, why wasn’t daddy there? It’s not impossible to make up. It’s an uphill battle.”

Freddie Roach is an International Boxing Hall of Fame trainer who has worked the corners of some of boxing’s most recognizable names like Mike Tyson, and Pacquaio. He experienced another side with De La Hoya.

Roach worked with De La Hoya for one fight against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. That fight was the first from the groundbreaking behind-the-scenes series “24/7.”

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“I worked on him cutting off the ring against [Mayweather] because he moves very well and I wanted him to set traps,” says Roach. “He did well for the first five or six rounds then all of a sudden he started following Mayweather, chasing him around the ring and walking into punches.

“He lost confidence.”

De La Hoya lost to Mayweather by split decision; the closest anyone has come to beating him.

He has gone through a laundry list of trainers during his career such as Roberto Alcazar, Jesus Rivero, Emanuel Steward, Gil Clancy, Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Nacho Beristain and Angelo Dundee.

After losing to Mayweather, De La Hoya told Roach, “we would be together for life.”

He was fired shortly thereafter. Did De La Hoya tell him personally?

“No,” he recalls. “I am thinking about the next fight.

“I thought wrong.”

With all his hidden issues, the man fought everybody. From the machismo battles against Fernando Vargas and Ricardo Mayorga to out of the ring skirmishes with former promoter Bob Arum who saw his young charge join Richard Schaeffer as the CEO of his Golden Boy Promotions.

“Richard Schaeffer is a snake,” Arum says in the doc.

Time heals all wounds as De La Hoya and Arum are, “good friends. We’re having a screening of my doc and he’s coming with [wife] Lovey.”

As time goes by, more and more will realize as troubled as he was and hid it, he could perform on the biggest of stages.

“This is a man who fought hurt, he fought injured, he fought during divorce,” remembers Abraham. He knew of De La Hoya’s issues outside the ring. “I was aware of it, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.

“When the bell sounded, this guy climbed through the ropes.”

Pressure, anger, pain, thy name is De La Hoya.

His company has lost Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez to other promoters. Rising star Ryan Garcia, who lost to Gervonta “Tank” Davis three months ago, is talking about leaving. Still, De La Hoya is the owner of Golden Boy Promotions, with over 40 fighters under contract.

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“It’s part of the sport,” he says, matter-of-factly. “Look, fighters come and go and I’m going to continue what I am doing.

“I’m literally rebuilding my stable of fighters. I love being involved one thousand percent.”

So, you love being Oscar De La Hoya?

“I still love boxing,” he states, intertwined with the sport. “This is my passion. Boxing has always been a love/hate relationship, but I love it more than I hate it especially now that I’m having fun.”

After watching the doc, should people be concerned?

“Don’t worry about it,” he points out. “For the first time, I’m free.

“I’m still alive.”