Riddick Bowe

Eleven years ago, Riddick Bowe was on top of the world. Bowe was the reigning heavy weight boxing champion of the world having just defeated Evander Holyfield.

Big money was on the way along with the big houses and fancy cars. But today, Riddick Bowe can't use any of those things because home is a 114 square foot prison cell surrounded by a razor wire fence.

"Why am I sitting here in prison?" "I made a big mistake. I went and got my ex-wife and kids and I guess I didn't know it was against the law to do that. So. They call it kidnapping. Actually it's interstate domestic violence," Bowe says.

There was a time when Bowe and his then wife, Judy, lived happily together with their five children but after Bowe's career faded, reports of domestic disputes followed.

The two split up and Judy moved with the kids to North Carolina.

In February of 1998 Bowe forced his family into a car and tried to bring them back to Maryland. At the time of the incident, he had a knife, duct tape and pepper spray with him.

"I regret it...it was a big mistake. If I could go back and change it, I don't think I'd ever go," Bowe says.

The indictment alleges that Bowe intentionally committed a crime of violence. That is kidnapping and assault. That caused bodily injury to his spouse and intimate partner.

Bowe pled guilty to the lesser charge of interstate domestic violence. His lawyers argued the champ shouldn't get jail time. They said boxing was to blame for his behavior. Bowe had brain damage from taking one too many blows in the ring.

"I'm going to keep it real with you. It was a ploy so that I didn't have to come to jail," Bowe now says. "I'm 110-percent o.k.."

The boxer is serving 18 months at the Federal Correctional Institute in Cumberland under medium security. The former heavy weight champion, who earned millions of dollars from boxing now shares an 8 by 13 foot cell with two other inmates.

Bowe's job at the prison is to keep the prison stairwells clean.

"It's not that hard to be in here, but just the fact that you can't move around the way you want to. You have to do what they say to do. Otherwise you get in more trouble...and you can't leave."

Bowe has a message for his fans, he says, "those that look up to me, I'm sorry that this happened. I hope they never find themselves in this predicament, because being in jail is not where you want to be...they're out there shooting each other. Stop what you're doing. Step back and assess the situation. Because you don't want to be here. My time here is short. A lot of guys have life. They're never going home."

Riddick Bowe could be out of prison in April for good behavior. He has remarried and says he plans on moving back home to the Ft. Washington area and he wants to get back into the ring, because he misses it and doesn't know how to do anything else.