Great fighters with drug habits

There is a song by a rapper named King Louie called Johnny Tapia.

 

Tony Tucker
Arturo Gatti
Scott Harrison
Ricky Hatton
Wilfred Benitez
Mike "Bounty" Hunter
Carl "Truth" Williams
Joe Calzaghe

 

Yes , just though

Apart from all the drink and drugs and living on the streets , last i heard a few years ago he fell from a balcony

 

Maybe is would be a shorter thread if it was "Great fighters without drug habits" all the boxers mentioned are great from the last 30 years !!

 

Hatton
Brook
Chavez snr
Chavez Jnr
Mike Tyson
Tyson fury
Nigel Benn
Ike
De la Hoya
Oliver McCall
Kovalev
Haye when in dubai

 

The 80s would have been another great competitive era for heavyweights, like the 60s, 70s, and 90s if it had not been for drugs. Talent was abounding, just not growth. Michael Dokes and Pinklon Thomas especially showed tremendous promise but threw it away.

 

Barney Ross (although his was after his career, getting addicted to morphine from war wounds)
Frankie Duarte (drugs)
Gustavo Ballas (alcohol)
Bernard 'Superbad' Mays (Malt liquor)
Toluco Lopez (some indigenous drink called pulque)

 

Bob Satterfield liked to party not sure what his vice was.

Liston with his OD and known use before Ali 2.

Think Gatti had a drinking problem no? Correct if wrong would hate to spread false info.

Hatton

 

Eckhard Dagge struggled with alcoholism, even during his active career.

 

The great Joe Louis for a time had a drug habit after getting involved with a girl much younger in the 1960's, while asleep, she injected him, he became hooked, he started to enjoy the experience. He stated this in his autobiography.

 

Jeff “Hitman” Harding descended into full blown alcoholism when he finished fighting (I don’t know if he was hitting the bottle while he was fighting). He was basically a broke, homeless street bum who was practically banned from every pub in his area of Sydney for being a complete pest. I read that he’s since recovered and is on the straight and narrow now but who knows?

 

Remember his WBC Junior Middleweight title defense against Emile Griffith on Sept 18 1976, Dagge won a 15 round decision, I saw it live on the CBS Sports Spectacular with my Dad.

 

Rocky Lockridge really fell apart due to substance abuse after his career ended.

 

There is a famous quotation (in Germany) from Eckhard Dagge: „Viele Weltmeister sind Alkoholiker geworden, aber ich bin der erste Alkoholiker, der Weltmeister wurde." (Many world champions have become alcoholics, but I am the first alcoholic to become world champion.)

 

Michael Dokes big time cocaine addict and alcoholic.