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While the Bronx burned in the 1980s, Eddie Irizarry ran in the borough's western depths as a crack dealer. His life was quick deals and quick money: gratification was instant. Irizarry dropped out of high school and began dealing drugs at 14, landed in prison by 17, got out at 20, and fell back into dealing almost as soon as he was released. "That's the story," he said, as if he'd seen it happen to a hundred friends from the neighborhood. Seven years later, at 27, he survived a drug deal that he says nearly killed him. Irizarry's dangerous reputation allowed him to walk away, but it was at that point he said, "I have to find something, because I can't keep doing this." He traded crack for boxing, and began training three hours a day. Irizarry often and offhandedly says boxing saved his life. It saved his life through the most normal of forces: by imposing a routine. In Eddie Irizarry's case, a 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. schedule. This routine, he said, is much different from his prior life. With his mother addicted to drugs and his father in prison, Eddie and his two siblings bounced between family members. At 14, he had rival drug dealers shooting at him. He completed a rehabilitation program after getting arrested at 15, but it didn't help. "I was addicted to the fast money," he said. Less than two years later, he needed cash quickly, so he robbed a South Bronx hotel at gunpoint when he was 17. He was arrested just outside the building and booked for a class B felony. During Irizarry's three years in prison he was shanked in the calf. A phone call informed him that his mother had died, possibly of AIDS, possibly of a drug overdose. He received vocational training and got his GED. But he still didn't learn his lesson: almost as soon as he was released he started running drugs again. "I had nowhere to go," he said.  |
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