Champion boxer Tapia found dead
Source: Agencies |
May 29, 2012, Tuesday
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JOHNNY Tapia, the five-time boxing champion whose turbulent career was marked by cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and run-ins with the law, was found dead on Sunday at his Albuquerque home in New Mexico.
He was 45.
Tapia won five championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt. He was regarded as the consummate underdog by his fans. The more trouble he found outside the ring, including several stints in jail, the more they rallied around him.
In a 1990s-era feud with fellow Albuquerque boxer and former world champion Danny Romero, Tapia's fans anointed him with the slang Spanish title of "Burque's Best." But his life was also marked by tragedy. He was orphaned at 8, his mother stabbed 26 times with a screwdriver and left to die.
In 2007, he was hospitalized after an apparent cocaine overdose. Several days later, his brother-in-law and his nephew were killed in car accident.
Tapia was banned from boxing for 3-1/2 years because of his cocaine addiction. But he knocked out Henry Martinez to win the WBO bantamweight title in 1994.
He was 45.
Tapia won five championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt. He was regarded as the consummate underdog by his fans. The more trouble he found outside the ring, including several stints in jail, the more they rallied around him.
In a 1990s-era feud with fellow Albuquerque boxer and former world champion Danny Romero, Tapia's fans anointed him with the slang Spanish title of "Burque's Best." But his life was also marked by tragedy. He was orphaned at 8, his mother stabbed 26 times with a screwdriver and left to die.
In 2007, he was hospitalized after an apparent cocaine overdose. Several days later, his brother-in-law and his nephew were killed in car accident.
Tapia was banned from boxing for 3-1/2 years because of his cocaine addiction. But he knocked out Henry Martinez to win the WBO bantamweight title in 1994.
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