Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley, billed as "
Destiny", was a professional boxing match contested on
June 17, 2000 for the
WBC,
IBA (both held by De La Hoya) and the vacant
lineal welterweight championships.
The previous year, De La Hoya had lost the WBC welterweight title to
Felix Trinidad. De La Hoya's first loss as a professional was met with controversy, as De La Hoya seemed to be in control for most of the fight's first eight rounds
De La Hoya demanded a rematch, but an agreement was never reached. Instead, De La Hoya took an "eliminator" bout with little-known Derrell Coley, who was the number one ranked welterweight fighter by the WBC. The winner was originally set to become the mandatory challenger to Trinidad, but the winner was all but guaranteed to become the new WBC welterweight champion as Trinidad was on the verge of vacating the title in order to move up to the middleweight division and challenge
David Reid.
With De La Hoya and Trinidad not able to come to terms on a rematch, De La Hoya instead reached an agreement in March 2000 to face Shane Mosley in June. Mosley was undefeated 34 professional bouts and had previously fought in the lightweight division where he had been the
IBF champion from 1997 to 1999 before relinquishing the title in September 1999 to move up to welterweight. At the time of his fight with De La Hoya, Mosley had only two welterweight fights to his credit, and as such, came into the fight as a 2-1 betting underdog. Nevertheless, Mosley was guaranteed no less than $4.5 million, the highest purse of his career at the time, while De La Hoya was set to earn $15 million.