A one-time middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight title holder who twice beat Thomas Hearns, the 54-year-old Barkley is listed in ‘fair’ condition at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx.

BY Mitch Abramson
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, October 23, 2014, 7:05 PM
Updated: Friday, October 24, 2014, 12:17 AM

Newkirk/Getty Images – Iran Barkley in 1992, after the second of his two wins over Thomas Hearns.

Iran Barkley, a ferocious boxer known as the “Blade,” who owns two victories over Thomas Hearns, was hospitalized on Wednesday with a minor stroke after having a seizure at his Bronx home, his niece, Barbara Wilder, told the Daily News.

Barkley, 54, is currently talking, eating and moving around and is “doing fair” in a room at Lincoln Medical Center, Wilder said.

“He’s good, he’s talking, he still looks like Iran,” Wilder said in a phone interview on Thursday. “He can walk around and everything. He’s going to be here for a couple of days but he’s doing well. He’s alert.”

Wilder said that Barkley collapsed in his home on Wednesday, “stressed out” from worrying about a brother, Alibay Barkley and a niece Nicola Barkley, both of whom are suffering from lung cancer.

“That’s what it was,” Wilder said. “He was stressed out. He never had any health problems before. It was the stress factor. But he’s in pretty good health now. The doctor just said he was under a lot of stress.”

Julia Xanthos/New York Daily News – Iran Barkley during a Daily News photo shoot in August.

He was found at his apartment by his girlfriend, who called for help, Wilder said.

Wilder said that Barkley is scheduled for more medical testing on Friday and expects him to stay in the hospital for several more days for precautionary reasons before he’s discharged.

Barkley earned millions of dollars in boxing, stopping Hearns in the third round to capture a middleweight title in 1988. He subsequently lost a split decision to Roberto Duran in 1989, relinquishing the belt. He would go on to win titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight, when he again topped Hearns by split decision in 1992.

Barkley fell on hard times, however, blowing through his money, and for a time he even slept on a subway because he was homeless. He was able to land an apartment with the help of a non-profit and as recently as this past summer had discussed making a comeback in boxing. He last fought professionally in 1999.