Staying Positive: The Story of ‘The Real’ Paul Banke

by Paul Banke, Paul Zanon, Ray Mancini (Foreword)

A member of the USA's stellar 1984 Olympic boxing team, Paul Banke then scaled the heights as a professional to become world champion in 1990. Unfortunately, throughout his career, he was at the mercy of his secret mistress—drugs. As part of the celebrity slipstream, Banke often had free access to heroin, crystal meth, and cocaine. Best remembered for his epic trilogy with Daniel Zaragoza, drugs overtook him and Banke soon became a forgotten champion. Shortly after retiring in 1993, he was homeless and destitute. Having not eaten for three days, Banke found himself lying in a dumpster in Vegas, ecstatic at finding a partially consumed cheeseburger. Arrested for grand theft auto in 1995, he was urged in jail to take an HIV test, due to sharing needles. He had contracted full-blown AIDS. Miraculously, after three decades of drug abuse, Banke turned his life around in September 2014 and became clean and sober. Now once again warmly embraced by the boxing fraternity, he shares his story to inspire and deter those on a similar path.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2020

Reviews

[Aranka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. It's sad in the sense that you wonder what could have been if Banke had stayed clean as a pro boxer. Despite his drug habit he still won a World Title and defended it once successfully. His interactions with other boxers of his time provide a behind the scenes look at the boxing community back then. The book is written in Banke's voice so it goes down easy and keeps you engaged.