Former champ John Tate facing court battles - former heavyweight boxing champion - Brief Article

Jet, Feb 1, 1993

Former heavyweight boxing champ John Tate is down for the count, out of work, out of money, recovering from drug abuse and facing jail for allegedly breaking a man's jaw and robbing him of $14.

Tate, 37, and weighing about 380 pounds, goes on trial March 2 in Knoxville, Tenn. He admits hitting the man, but denies robbing him.

"I admit I hit the boy," said Tate, who held the WBA version of the heavyweight title in 1979, before losing it to Mike Weaver in a 15th-round knockout. "I'd heard about the Weaver fight about a million times and I was tired of it. I told him to stop it and he wouldn't. I did break his jaw, but I didn't rob the man ... I had $800 in my pocket. Why would I steal $14?"

Tate's biggest fight has been against cocaine abuse, which landed him jail until 1990. "It's been a harder Fight than all my amateur and professional fights put together," he said.