After a career that included an Olympic gold medal and 10 world titles in six weight divisions, Oscar De La Hoya, the nicknamed "Golden Boy" from East Los Angeles, has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Fans from his old East L.A. stomping grounds greeted the news Sunday with joy, saying it was right to recognize De La Hoya's extraordinary successes in the ring -- even though periods of his personal life have been far from golden.

Last September, De La Hoya admitted himself to a treatment facility for drug and alcohol abuse, on the eve of the match-up between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez, one of the biggest fights for his promotion company, Golden Boy Productions, said a report by the Associated Press.

Back in 2007, a tabloid Website posted photographs of the then-still-active boxer wearing women's clothing in the company of a women who wasn't his wife. After a long media effort to fight the authenticity of the images, De La Hoya later admitted in an interview with Univision television that the photos were, in fact, of him.

About nine years earlier, De La Hoya was accused of rape in 1998. A California lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, but settled out of court three years later, alleged the boxer had raped a 15-year-old woman inside a hotel room in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in June 1996, said the New York Times

Jesse Caro, a 98-year-old retired machinist who graduated from Garfield High School, which De La Hoya also attended decades later, told the Latin Post he was happy to see the 41-year-old retired boxer entered into the Hall of Fame.

"He deserves it," Caro said. "De La Hoya had a very successful career and has also done a lot for our community."

The career successes of professional athletes need to be judged separately from their personal lives, said Liliana de la Rosas, an insurance saleswoman and mother of two.

"I heard he had some trouble, he got in trouble in the media," de la Rosas, 41, said, "but De La Hoya had a great career and that's what people should remember. ... Maradona [the highly-rated retired soccer player from Argentina] had a bad reputation with the way he treated people, but he was a great player."

Jerry Ramirez, 22, a recent university graduate with a degree in political science, noted golfer Tiger Woods, former President Bill Clinton and former pro basketball super-star Michael Jordon all had extraordinary careers -- but are also known for less-than-stellar personal lives.

"De La Hoya was an amazing boxer and nothing about his personal life can change that," Ramirez said.

"Today," said De La Hoya at the Hall of Fame ceremony in Casastoga, New York, "marks an incredible personal achievement."

De La Hoya, who had an amateur record of 223-5 with 153 knockouts and as a professional had a 39-6 record that included 30 knockouts, said his Hall of Fame entry "is only the latest milestone that never would have been possible without my family, my friends and, most of all, my fans." 

Selected by a panel of sport historians from the Boxing Writers Association, De La Hoya was joined in the Hall of Fame's 25th class by two of his contemporaries in the sport, Puerto Rican star Felix "Tito" Trinidad and Joe Calzaghe from Wales, said the AP.

Other inductees were: George Chaney, Charles Ledoux and Mike O'Dowd in the old-timer category; Tom Allen, pioneer category; promoter Barry Hearn; referees Richard Steele and Eugene Corri; journalist Graham Houston and Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer in the non-participant and observer categories.