Boxer fighting bout of life

Monday, Dec. 21, 1998 | 10:04 a.m.

Khan battles disease, poverty while trying to care for kids

Heavyweight boxer Abdul Khan fought on the Nov. 10, 1978, card at Caesars Palace when then-world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes made his first title defense.

That night, the two 29-year-old men took treks down dramatically different career paths.

Then-undefeated Holmes knocked out Alfredo Evangelista in the seventh round. He went on to defend the title successfully for six more years and is still fighting at age 49.

Khan lost a 10-round decision to then-California state champion Stan Ward. Two years later, Khan suffered a career-ending arm injury during training.

Holmes will fight 50-year-old George Foreman for a $4 million payday on Jan. 23 at the Houston Astrodome. Khan, hospitalized in Las Vegas for asthma and bronchitis -- and suffering from memory loss -- is broke with no prospects and mounting bills.

Khan's most pressing concern is coming up with enough money to give his two children, one of whom suffers from cerebral palsy, a semblance of a Merry Christmas.

"My biggest fear is that I will die and not leave anything for my children," said Khan, who turned 50 on Thursday. "I've been very sick, so I think about things like that. All I ever wanted was to be somebody."

Khan's plight is nothing new -- a young boxer with dreams of winning the title and riding in a limousine to his mansion winds up beaten, broke and on a one-way bus trip to Palookaville. The fact that it has gone on for so long only makes his story sadder.

"This is a major age-old problem," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The NSAC has worked on legislation to create a medical fund for ex-boxers with Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., and others. It has passed the Senate and awaits action in the House.

"We need the help of the promoters, the television networks and the fighters (who make millions of dollars) to create a good medical plan," Ratner said.

Despite the multimillion-dollar purses that get a lot of news media attention, 90 percent of boxers make what amounts to $100 a round, Ratner said.

Tony Lato, secretary-treasurer of the Veterans Boxing Association Ring 711 in Las Vegas and a state boxing inspector, agrees that something needs to be done.

"A one-quarter or one-half percent tax of the gross receipts of all boxing cards would raise a tremendous amount of money to help ex-fighters in need of medical care," Lato said. "It is the saddest thing, seeing what happens to a lot of these boxers."

The Veterans Boxing Association locally helps pay the medical and funeral expenses of its members. It costs $20 a year to join and is open to anyone in boxing, not just ex-pugilists. Khan is not a member.

Khan, who also fought under his given name of Mel Rush, battled some of the toughest contenders of his era, including future world champs Michael Dokes and Mike Weaver.

Khan could best be described as "Rocky" minus the success. Khan, who somewhat resembles Carl Weathers, who played champion Apollo Creed in Sylvester Stallone's Rocky films, says he was that actor's body double in "Rocky 2."

Khan is not one of those fighters who foolishly squandered his money. He never made all that much. Khan said his biggest purse was $8,000 for a second-round knockout he suffered at the hands of Weaver on Dec. 5, 1978, in Reno.

"I think it was more like $5,000, because that's the top amount I used to pay Mike's opponents," said local boxing promoter Tony Trudnich, who promoted the Weaver-Khan fight at what was then the Sahara-Reno but now is the Reno Hilton.

"Mel was a good, square-jawed heavyweight who came to fight, and not just hang on. The fight was short, but it was a good one because he and Mike traded punches."

A single parent since the late 1980s, Khan is raising his 12-year-old son, Loren, who has cerebral palsy and asthma, and his 11-year-old daughter, Angel Nicole, on a small monthly Social Security disability check.

Since he contracted asthma and bronchitis in January while living with his kids in a local homeless shelter, what little savings Khan had has been wiped out.

Khan has been in and out of five local medical facilities in the last 11 months. He and his children now live with his mother, Shirley Washington, in her one-bedroom Las Vegas apartment. She, too, suffers from asthma and lives on Social Security.

Khan refuses to apply for welfare, saying: "I want to be independent."

"Sure things are tough and we have our hands full, but you should do all you can to help your family," Washington said. "I can only say it will be a sad Christmas for us this year. The good Lord willing, we'll be happy if all of us are alive to see it."

When Khan's mom and children visited him in his room at Valley Hospital recently, his face beamed with joy. When they left, Khan's face showed the telling stress of a man who felt the weight of the world on his back.

"If you can write in that newspaper article that if I'm well next week, and someone would give me a part-time day job, I would be grateful," he said.

"My kids need clothes and shoes. And like other kids, they want bikes and a video game player for Christmas. My son said he wants a boxing video game. He is so proud that I was a fighter. Lord, it's those kids who give me the strength to go on."

Khan was born in Los Angeles but raised on the tough south side of Chicago. The son of a television repair man, he hung around in gangs and got into a lot of street fights. As a teenager, Khan moved to California and got work on Hollywood film crews.

When his father died in 1971 and his younger brother, Eugene, was killed in an auto accident the same year, Khan turned to amateur boxing to vent his frustration. He turned pro in 1974.

On Aug. 8, 1975, at the Las Vegas Hilton, Khan was knocked out in the fifth round by highly touted Marty Monroe, who entered that fight with seven wins and a draw.

Over the next five years, Khan bounced around numerous fight venues, including the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and the old Silver Slipper in Las Vegas. On March 25, 1978, Khan gave a good account of himself in losing an eight-round decision to then-undefeated Dokes in Las Vegas.

"I'd go back into the ring tomorrow if I could -- I loved boxing," said Khan, who claims his pro record was 15 wins, 10 losses and 6 draws. As with a lot of old boxers who did not rise to contender status, Khan's ring record cannot be independently confirmed.

Washington said she believes her son would fight again, but notes: "The boxing industry should help take care of him now. The profession owes him that much."

Khan says that despite what happened to him, he would not discourage young people from entering the sport. But he warns them to keep their eyes wide open.

"To any kid who wants to get into boxing today, I'd say take your time, get into the best physical condition and don't believe in the slick stories or quick money that people will promise you," Khan said, tapping his severely and permanently swollen knuckles on the hospital bed.

"I was promised a lot of things by a lot of people, including fighters who said after I was injured and couldn't fight no more that they would help take care of me. Not one of those promises was kept."

(Ed Koch, a Sun general assignment reporter, was a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America from 1980-84. He covered his first professional boxing world title bout on Nov. 10, 1978, the night Khan lost to Ward.)