The Tale Of An '80s Heavyweight

Tony Tucker had it all. Including a broken hand, a loss to Mike Tyson, severe depression and a chronic drug habit. Here, in his own words, Tucker tells Glynn Evans all about it

- Glynn Evans

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan, where I was raised, produced a helluva lot of good fighters. Stanley Ketchel (the world middleweight champion of the early 1900s) was way before my time but Buster Mathis and his son Buster Jnr are from here, as are the May weathers. I knew Floyd Jnr since when he was in his mother’s stomach. We are distantly related, second cousins, I think.

My Pops was a fighter (Bob Tucker was a one-time National Golden Gloves finalist and former pro) and, back in the day, he boxed Floyd Snr in the amateurs. Me and Roger May weather were in school together.

As a kid I was a very good all-round athlete. I could hit a baseball right outta the park and also lettered in gridiron and basketball but I started boxing just so that I could have a relationship with my dad. He trained me hard. I had my first amateur fight, aged nine, at just 98lbs (7st) but really excelled when I moved up to light-heavy. At one time I was ranked number one amateur in the world.

But 1980 was a real bad year for me. First there was the Warsaw plane crash. (In March, a plane carrying the US amateur squad, crashed half a mile from Warsaw airport, killing all 14 boxers plus eight officials). I was supposed to board that plane but withdraw last minute. My family all thought I had died. I was very close to several of the guys who passed.

Had (US coach Tom) “Sarge” Johnson not been on the plane that crashed I believe my career path would’ve gone a better way. He’d have steered me. My Dad was a good coach but let’s just say his management skills weren’t that great. Then my Olympic dream was crushed before it ever got started because of the US boycott of the Moscow Games.