Cocaine and Boxing: How Coke Shaped the Boxing Landscape

If cocaine was never created, you can be sure a lot of things in boxing, especially in the 80’s, would have been different. On one hand, if the drug didn’t exist, many boxers would have found other vices to complicate their lives and careers. It’s not like cocaine diverted the attention of people who would have otherwise been working with blind kids during their off time.

At the same time, boxers were long able to juggle their vices with their careers until cocaine use became rampant. Boxers drank, smoked, gambled, cavorted, and god knows what else, but still managed to keep their careers afloat. Not too many fighters, however, have been able to stay near the top of their game for too long with a cocaine problem. It gets them all in the end.

In the 70’s, cocaine had a more benign, fun-loving vibe. Looking back, you might picture a scene out of Studio 54, people having a festive time in a consequence-free environment. It got ugly quick in the 80’s. When you think of cocaine in the 80’s, you’re more inclined to picture the advent and proliferation of crack—featuring urban-blight and destroyed lives. Boxing was a microcosm of this transformation.
So how would the history of boxing in the 80’s and into the 90’s be different?

The Heavyweight Division:

Looking back, one might say the omnipresence of cocaine in the 80’s was a bigger asset to champion Larry Holmes than his jab. One promising contender after the next pulled the rug from under his own career by getting mixed up in the devil’s dandruff.

Leon Spinks: Leon didn’t go from Heavyweight Champion to one of the worst heavyweights in the world for no reason. Was he a flash in the pan? Maybe, but his frenzied lifestyle didn’t help. If he stayed straight, (assuming he ever was) he could have won the Ali rematch and maybe given Holmes a better challenge.

Michael Dokes: Already deep into coke by the time he reached the world-class level; he is one of the great what-ifs in boxing history. One of the fastest heavyweights of his era, Dokes blew it all over cocaine. Once got out of a cocaine distribution charge after being caught with a kilo of the drug when his lawyer successfully argued, “Michael Dokes buys cocaine the way you and I buy potatoes.” Seeing a ravaged and over-the-hill Dokes give a young Holyfield hell before losing makes you really wonder what could have been.

Pinklon Thomas: The prodigiously gifted Thomas had long been a drug abuser, so perhaps his descent was more predictable for those close to him. With a world-class jab, Thomas was at one time being seriously touted as Holmes’ heir-apparent. Late nights and self-abuse soon robbed him of all his resolve, taking him from a world champion to a trialhorse in a few years time.

Gerry Cooney: For all the flack he catches, he still managed to give a dead-prime Larry Holmes a very difficult night in 1982. At 25, he conceivably could have rebuilt. With that sledgehammer left hook of his, a serious-minded Cooney could have remained a factor for years. He could have received a rematch with Holmes, been a more serious challenge to Michael Spinks, or even got in on the Mike Tyson sweepstakes.

Tony Tubbs: Could box like the dickens when he was right. Tubbs was a fantastic fighter with speed, power, and agility. While he would show flashes of his best form for a long time, a debilitating coke habit that still plagues him today sabotaged his career. He was only a fraction of what he could have been.

John Tate: Maybe Mike Weaver, who came from way off the pace to starch Tate in the 15th round of their title fight, created a blueprint on how to beat Tate that would have made it difficult for him to rebuild. However, a young Tate should have conceivably been able to come back strongly after that setback. With great physical gifts and a good amateur pedigree, Tate could have secured a number of big-money fights in the 80’s if his drug problem didn’t get the better of him.

Oliver McCall (90’s): One of the most naturally durable heavyweights of all time with one-punch KO power. The difference in McCall’s performance from his first fight with Lennox Lewis to his second fight with him shows the deteriorating affects the drug had on his career. But still, even in the midst of a total breakdown, he was still somehow able to eat all of Lennox’s shots. If he was able to conquer his demons, he could have been a fixture in the heavyweight scene for years to come. He would have probably got a shot at a comebacking Tyson for millions. Who knows, instead of Lamon Brewster knocking out Wladmir Klitschko, maybe McCall would have been in that spot. We’ll never know.

Let’s take a look at other fighters whose cocaine use changed the boxing landscape. A division-by-division breakdown, while easier to do with heavyweights, would be too speculative for the lower weight classes, so let’s just do an individual analysis on these fighters.

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