A little fun for a Friday morning - can you guess who this boxer is (internet searches are cheating :))?
Hints
1. Survived a bus crash at age of 7 that killed the pregnant woman who was sitting on the same seat.
2. Watched as his mother was abducted and was unable to stop it. She was raped and died four days later.
3. Has been clinically dead three times for over a minute each.
4. There has been talk of a Hollywood movie depicting his life - all still in negotiation.
5. Attempted suicide which brings his death count to four.
6. Won two Golden Gloves as an amateur and his first 21 fights as a professional.
Who am I? First one to get it wins fame and fortune (however I'm not providing it ...)
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Floyd Patterson.
Floyd Patterson.
Nope - Strike 1
is it johny tapia??
And we have a winner
Mrodorf - you hit it right on. It is Johnny Tapia - congrats on your new found fame and fortune - let us know how it turns out.
Johnny Tapia has led one of those rather unbelievable lives where it seems everything happens at extremes. He has cheated death so many times that he can act as a tour guide there for the rest of us.
He actually saw his mom get abducted and went to wake his grandparents. Unfortunately they didn't believe him and told him to go back to bed. The rest is history - his mom ended up raped and left for dead. She succumbed to her injuries four days later. The guy that did it never did end up in court although he did die in a 1983 car crash and his name was later released in 1999 - Richard Espinosa.
Tapia's drug addiction is what sent him to the brink three separate times and he was eventually diagnosed as being bi-polar which explains the extreme highs and lows he endured. He was either severely depressed - enough to attempt suicide last August -- or on a severe high - excelling as a professional boxer. At the moment it seems he is swinging back to the positive side and is training - vowing a comeback.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see a movie about him in the future - but some have speculated that perhaps they will wait to see what the ending should be like. Let's hope it gets made sooner than later with a happy ending.
Read more about Johnny Tapia at BBC or on Johnny Tapia - Wikipedia.
Talk about a hard knock life.
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