Football
Associated Press 17y

Five-time champion improves, gets out of hospital

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Five-time world champion boxer Johnny Tapia
was released from Presbyterian Hospital after a three-day stay that
began with an apparent cocaine overdose.

Tapia had been upgraded from serious to fair condition on
Wednesday and was released later in the day.

It has been a tragic week for the Tapia family. First, there was
Johnny Tapia's brush with death and then came a car crash that
killed two relatives who were on their way to Albuquerque to see
the ailing boxer.

State police said Tapia's brother-in-law, 39-year-old Robert
Gutierrez, was killed along with his nephew, 23-year-old Ben
Garcia, before dawn Tuesday when their car went off a highway south
of Bloomfield and rolled, ejecting both men.

State police were investigating whether alcohol was a factor.
Investigators found empty bottles and partially consumed bottles at
the scene.

Teresa Tapia said she has yet to tell her husband about the
crash.

"We're just trying to get him strong enough … so we can let
him know about this other tragedy," she said.

Johnny Tapia, who turned 40 last month, was taken Monday to the
hospital after paramedics responded to an early morning call about
someone who wasn't breathing at a hotel room.

Albuquerque police said it appeared to be an overdose and that
Tapia would be charged with possession of a controlled substance.
Police had discovered a plastic bag containing cocaine.

Tapia has a history of cocaine use and run-ins with the law.

Tapia was banned from boxing for 3½ years in the early 1990s because of his cocaine addiction. He spent six months in rehabilitation in 2003 after a collapse at home and later that year police said he overdosed on prescription pills.

It's has been a hard life outside the ring for Tapia, who was orphaned at 8, his mother stabbed 26 times with a screwdriver. He never knew his father and has battled cocaine addiction, alcohol, depression and numerous run-ins with the law.

In his book "Mi Vida Loca," Tapia said he's been declared clinically dead six times.

The latest episode came some two weeks after he won a majority
decision over Evaristo Primero of El Paso, Texas. Tapia, whose
record is 56-5-2, billed that fight as his farewell to the ring.

Tapia has won five titles in three weight classes, winning the
WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles
and the IBF featherweight belt.

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