Former professional boxer Tony Ayala, Jr. has been found dead this morning. Ayala’s corpse was discovered in the Zarzamora Street Gym in San Antonio, a gym he helped run with his brothers. The initial reports indicate that Ayala died of cardiac arrest.
Ayala was at one time one of the most promising prospects in the sport of boxing. As a teenager he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was one of the featured undercard bouts on the first Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns battle in 1981. His surge up the rankings was doomed almost as soon as it began, however, as criminal behavior curtailed his career.