Boxer Mando Ramos: what a difference recovery made.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Boxer Mando Ramos, who won the lightweight title at 20, dead at age 59. Ramos turned pro at age 17 and was living in cars by the time he was 25. While according to his own testimony he “never really trained,”he went to the gym every day and the bar every night and still managed a career 37-11 record with 23 knockouts. After losing two brothers to heroin overdoses, he checked himself in to rehab in the early ‘80s and remained sober for the last 25 years of his life. He ended up helping a lot of inner-city kids by starting the Boxing Against Alcohol and Drugs program. After partying hard and developing diabetes, he was obviously living on borrowed time, because his death was reportedly due to “natural causes.”The kids will miss you, Mando.