by David P. Greisman
Former heavyweight titleholder Herbie Hide had a warrant issued for his arrest after he did not appear at a court hearing, according to BBC News.
Hide is accused of conspiring to supply cocaine, according to the article. He allegedly arranged for undercover reporters from tabloid newspaper The Sun to get the drug.
Another defendant in the case has pleaded guilty to three of four drug charges.
Hide’s attorney said he’d been told that the 41-year-old boxer was in a clinic in Nigeria, where he was being treated for Malaria. But no doctor’s note had been sent to the court at the time of his hearing, according to BBC News.
The 41-year-old has confronted various troubles in recent years.
He was convicted of assault in June 2011 and was fined. He failed to pay those fines until late 2012 and nearly was arrested again because of that. Hide claimed he didn’t have money because he was no longer fighting and wasn’t certain who paid the fine for him.
He also took more than three years to pay thousands of dollars in fines for driving offenses that dated to 2005, not settling the case until 2008.
In 2011 he was found not guilty of raping a woman, with prosecutors deciding that they didn’t have enough evidence to go forward with a trial.
And last year a man was fatally stabbed in Hide’s home. Hide was not at home at the time, police said, and another man was arrested in the case.
Hide’s record as a fighter was 49-4 with 43 knockouts. He held a heavyweight world title twice during the ‘90s and had continued to box at or around cruiserweight over the past several years. His last bout was in April 2010.
David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com