On this day, April 13, in 1983,undefeated middleweight boxer Tony Ayala Jr. was sentenced to 35 years for raping a young schoolteacher.
Ayala was a controversial and rising teenage star from San Antonio. He was 22-0, featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and declared the best young fighter since Muhammad Ali. But on New Year’s Day 1983, Ayala broke into his neighbor’s home and raped the woman. Although only 19, Ayala had two other convictions for assaults against women. He was given 35 years and paroled in 1999. In 2000 he was shot by a young woman after he broke into her home. In 2004, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was found with heroin.
– Scott McCabe
