He never learned.
For the second time in nine months, former World Boxing Federation (now Foundation) welterweight champion William ?The Black Mamba? Magahin was arrested by police after he and his cohort held up a jeepney passenger in Quiapo, Manila early morning April 14, it was reported.
Patroling cops cornered Magahin, 35, and his companion Benson Jalosjos while fleeing minutes after robbing at knife point a female passenger who screamed for help.
At the Quiapo police station where the suspects were brought for detentiond, Magahin sought the help of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao saying Pacquiao is his friend.
?I want to ask the help of Manny Pacquiao to bail me out because he is my friend,? appealed Magahin, who was recently released from the Quezon City jail after almost eight months of detention also due to robber-holdup.
Magahin was jailed July 2004 after he and his another companion robbed passengers of an FX taxi in Quezon City.
WBF president Mick Croucher of Australia arrived in the country and visited Magahin in jail last August 2, 2004. Croucher volunteered to bail out the black mestizo ex-boxer but his released was delayed for several months until the complainant decided to drop the case.
Boxing promoter Gabriel ?Bebot? Elorde, Jr. had opposed Magahin?s release for fear that he might go back to his bad habits.
Magahin had admitted to Croucher he was a drug addict and promised to reform if Croucher would facilitate his release.
When he was freed early this year, Magahin, unemployed and financially broke, reportedly gathered his gang and went back to robbery as his means to eke out a living?until he fell to the arms of the law once more in Quiapo.
Magahin was a toast of Philippine boxing when he captured the WBF bauble on March 25, 1995 by defeating Australian champion Jeff Malcolm in Iloilo City.
He yielded the crown to Suwito Lagola in Sumatra, Indonesia and was annihilated by Jaime Lerma of Mexico in 1996 in Manila. He quit boxing in 1997.
In 2000, Magahin grabbed headlines in Manila when he knocked out a cellphone snatcher with a single punch in Malate, Manila.
