Former heavyweight boxing champion Tony "TNT" Tubbs disappointed his mother and the judge who was trying to help him with his cocaine addiction when he chose to go to prison rather than enter a treatment center.

Tubbs, 51, of College Hill, Ohio, was before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Melba Marsh for sentencing after a Nov. 30 conviction for cocaine possession. After that date, Marsh ordered Tubbs to live with his mother until sentencing so she could help him beat his drug habit.

As the hearing started, Tubbs assured the judge he'd stayed out of Walnut Hills as she had ordered following his November conviction. The judge said he was lying, and that she'd received three telephone calls.

The judge told him that "somebody dropped a dime," saying that he'd been in Walnut Hills associating with known drug users. She then told Tubbs it was time to make some smart decisions to help her help him deal with his problems.

"Mr. Tubbs, you're in the fight of your life," Marsh said. "How come you're not fighting? How come your momma's doing all the fighting for you? How come you don't have those fists up fighting for yourself?" Tubbs responded, "I know I'm a winner."

"Are you laying on the ropes? You're holding your power for doing the rope-a-dope for later, are you?" the judge asked, referring to a boxing tactic of absorbing punches to tire an opponent out before going on the offensive.

Marsh told Tubbs she would give him a choice: if he didn't want help, she'd send him to prison for six months. If he admitted to his addiction and asked for help, she'd order him into a locked-down drug rehab facility for four to six months followed by a year or more of aftercare in a residential facility.

As Tubbs quietly told the judge, "I'll take my six months," his mother threw her hands in the air and yelled, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Please don't give him a choice," and then began weeping.

Tubbs tried to console her but she walked to the back of the courtroom, where she told him, "You'll come out the same way."

Tubbs' attorney asked for time to consult with Tubbs, hoping to change his decision. She then noticed the report by the court clinic, which quoted Tubbs as saying: "I was a cocaine addict first and a boxer second… I did fight several fights while under the control of cocaine. I liked cocaine."

Tubbs, a protégé of Muhammad Ali, won 46 fights and lost 10 and won the World Boxing Association heavyweight title in April 1985.

When Tubbs returned after talking to his attorney, the judge told him to stop lying—to her, to his mother, and to himself. "Mr. Tubbs knows he can't continue with this life but the first step is he has to admit it to me…He has to say he is powerless against cocaine. He has to say that he wants treatment," the judge said. Instead, Tubbs chose prison.

Marsh sent him to prison for six months, the minimum for his conviction. He's been to prison twice before for cocaine possession and for not paying child support for some of his 16 children.