Tapia says rehab worked, wants to fight again soon

Monday, March 3, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

ASSOCAITED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Johnny Tapia says rehab worked this time, he followed the rules and is straightening out his life, which took a bizarre turn in January with a police confrontation.

Tapia also said he wants to fight again -- "right away."

The former IBF featherweight champ's wife, Teresa, had picked him up at the Mohave County (Ariz.) Sheriff's Office in Kingman after the Jan. 10 standoff outside a mobile home, where deputies had been looking for Tapia's cousin, Raymond Whiting. Sheriff's spokesman Jarrod Lyman said Tapia was not arrested but was ordered to court on a felony charge of possessing drug paraphernalia.

When his wife, Teresa, got him home in Las Vegas, he collapsed in his living room and was rushed to University Medical Center in Las Vegas following what she has said was a drug overdose. She made the statement in interviews with national publications and TV networks. But the Tapias no longer discuss it under advice of counsel.

Rehab was the course he chose at that point, and he stayed six weeks.

"It was just a 21-day program," Tapia said in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal published Sunday. "I stayed six weeks because I wanted to. I took it serious this time."

Rehab hasn't prevented relapses in the past, but Tapia says this time was different.

"I'm really, really proud. I followed the rules. I wanted to do it. I've never wanted to do it before."