(reuters) Alexis Arguello, the three-times world boxing champion who was elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital last year, was found dead on Wednesday in an apparent suicide, local media reported. Police in Managua were investigating Arguello's death from a gunshot wound and are expected to reveal more details later on Wednesday. Arguello had battled drug and alcohol problems and admitted to having contemplated suicide in the past. Arguello, 57, retired from the ring in 1995 with a record of 82 wins and eight defeats with 65 knockouts. Known as "The Explosive Thin Man", Arguello was the sixth man to win world titles in three different weight divisions and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992. Arguello began his professional boxing career in 1968 and held the World Boxing Association featherweight, the World Boxing Council super featherweight and WBC lightweight titles. He lost a boxing fortune when the leftist Sandinista government seized his assets after taking power in 1979 and he briefly trained with the U.S.-backed Contra rebels who fought to overthrow the Soviet-backed regime in the 1980s. But he later joined the Sandinista party and became deputy mayor of Managua, his home town, in 2004. He was elected mayor of the city last November. Arguello's foray into the political arena was marred by controversy after opponents of President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government denounced last year's municipal elections as fraudulent.

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