All Sport Report

Johnny Tapia barely had time to come down from the high of decisively winning the last boxing match of his incredible career when suspicion of another kind of “high” revealed it’s ugly head again.

Monday Tapia was rushed Presbytirian Hospital and admitted into intensive care, suffering the effects of an apparent cocaine overdose. Police officers who responded to the 911 call found a bag at the scene containing white residue which was later confirmed to be Tapia’s former drug of choice. Jonnhy served a lengthy suspension from the ring in the early ’90’s while battling a cocaine addiction and also had a brief stint in rehab a few years ago following an overdose of prescription pills.

During his long and prosperous professional boxing career, Tapia had become just as well known in the press for questionable personal activities as he had for his talent inside the ring. There were several incidences involving drugs and alcohol, several run ins with the law, but Tapia had reportedly been getting his life outside the ring in order. Before Johnny’s last war in the ring he told interviewers that his wild days were behind him, that focus on family and focus on his children had his feet firmly planted on the ground.

Tapia has been upgraded from his original critical condition to fair, but his wife told reporters that doctors have said her husband isn’t quite out of the woods yet.

Once Johnny recovers a little further, he will find out another tragic piece of news that effected his family this week. While on their way to visit Tapia in the hospital before dawn Tuesday, his brother-in-law and nephew were involved in an accident, both parties were ejected from the vehicle as it left the road and both were killed. Tapia’s brother-in-law was 39, his nephew was 23 years old, police found empty and open containers of alcohol at the scene and are awaiting the results of blood tests to determine if intoxication was the cause or a factor in the occurance of the accident.

In Johnny Tapia’s biography “Mi Vida Loca” he claims to have been declared clinically dead at six different times over the course of his life. I’m not sure if this incident will be number seven, I wasn’t on scene. I do know however that the 911 call reported that the man in need wasn’t breathing, so it was at the very least a close call. I know Johnny Tapia has had a wildly absured and difficult walk through life, beginning with witnessing his mother’s kidnapping, which resulted in her murder more than three decades ago.

I hope he takes this situation with as much gravity as it deserves and considers his children before any future actions, I would think he’d like to be around to enjoy his son’s professional boxing career. He should immediately check himself into rehab upon being released from the hospital and begin a second chapter in his memoirs detailing this latest nearly fatal personal experience and the ensuing fatalities to family members that occured indirectly as a result.

Tapia has been given another chance, he should use it to promote the real possibility of recovery from all of the negative things that people can get themselves involved in, describe what it’s like going through rehab and how exhilerating it is to know that you don’t need to succumb to the allure of substances to get through anything. He should continue training and work with his son and become a positve role model for all those who’ve looked up to him in the past and leave the crazy life behind once and for all.

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