They called the fight “Bad Blood.” It was a marketing angle that wrote itself. In 2002, Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas met in a clash of Mexican-American U.S. Olympians from southern California, bringing the two biggest draws at 154 pounds together for a monster pay-per-view event that was powered by a bitter grudge.

In a special edition of the HBO Boxing Podcast, Eric Raskin speaks to De La Hoya, Vargas, and numerous insiders who were at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas that night and lets them tell the story of a modern classic, a showdown in which scores were settled and blood was spilled.

Blood Sport: The Story Of Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas

HBO Boxing