Former heavyweight boxing champion Tony Tubbs pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling crack cocaine and went to jail instead of back into the ring.

        Mr. Tubbs, 42, asked Hamilton County Judge Steven Martin if he could fight one more bout first, but the judge said getting clean was more important.

        He sent Mr. Tubbs to jail pending an Oct. 20 hearing at which he will likely move him to a drug treatment program.

        “It's a tough fall,” attorney Ken Lawson said of his client's life now, compared with his win in 1985 of the World Boxing Associ ation's heavyweight title.

        He said he'd like to see Mr. Tubbs “do the same thing Aaron Pryor did — turn his life around.”

        The judge agreed.

        Mr. Tubbs, who lives in College Hill, was indicted in August for selling a $20 rock of crack cocaine to an undercover police officer. He initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea Tuesday after deciding to ask for placement in the River City Correctional Complex in Camp Washington, a jail that focuses exclusively on drug and alcohol treatment.

        The maximum possible penalty for the felony charge is 12 months in prison and a $2,500 fine.

        Mr. Lawson stressed to the judge that Mr. Tubbs had been cooperative with police.

        Mr. Tubbs' drug problems date back to 1989, when he tested positive for cocaine after a fight. He admitted then he had a drug problem and had to give the belt back.

        He also was arrested in Florida in 1992 after buying cocaine from an undercover officer there. He had been scheduled to make a comeback that week with a fight in Atlantic City.

        Mr. Pryor, also of Cincinnati, won the world junior welterweight title in 1980 and held it until 1984. He also got involved in cocaine, but is clean now and trying to redeem himself as a boxing trainer and church deacon.

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