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"&lt;img alt=\"0421-dewey-bozella-rubin-carter-01\" src=\"http://ll-media.tmz.com/2014/04/21/0421-dewey-bozella-rubin-carter-2.jpg\" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ESPY-winning boxer&lt;strong&gt; Dewey Bozella&lt;/strong&gt; -- who won the 2011 Arthur Ashe award for courage -- tells &lt;strong&gt;TMZ Sports&lt;/strong&gt; he'll be forever grateful to &lt;strong&gt;Rubin \"Hurricane\" Carter&lt;/strong&gt; for inspiring him to fight when he was wrongfully convicted of murder.&amp;#160;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;\"I could relate to what he went through,\" Bozella says ... \"He fought like hell for his freedom and I was inspired by that.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bozella -- who was an aspiring fighter when was locked up in 1983 for a crime he didn't commit -- was released after 26 years in 2009 when witnesses recanted their stories.&amp;#160;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bozella went on to fight in a pro bout in 2011 -- AND WON -- and says it wouldn't have been possible without Carter.&amp;#160;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;\"His movie [\"The Hurricane\"] gave me hope while I was inside. I felt the same way he did.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;\"Before he got out of his mess, he made the decision that he wasn&amp;#8217;t going to take it. I felt very much the same way. I had the same type of drive. I&amp;#8217;d rather die than admit guilt for something I didn&amp;#8217;t do. He stood up for what he believed in, and that made me feel like I was doing the right thing.\"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Carter passed away on April 20th. He was 72.&amp;#160;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;iframe width=\"700\" height=\"394\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/qs7lwkCTvKc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/22/dewey-bozella-rubin-hurricane-carter-inspired-me-to-fight-for-my-freedom/?adid=sidebarwidget_tv_clips>