Boxing group off to slow start

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 | 9:59 a.m.

Six months into its existence, the Joint Association of Boxers has members but has not collected any dues and is continuing to be financed by the Teamsters union.

Heralded as a responsive, innovative network that would serve fighters by offering health care and career counseling, JAB has had fighters sign informational cards but has not asked for any financial contributions from those fighters. Initially, JAB founder Eddie Mustafa Muhammad said fighters would be asked to contribute up to 3 percent of their purses to the program.

To date, no fighters have contributed to the fund.

"But that's OK," Muhammad said this week, "because we're still in the infancy stage."

JAB, via the assistance of attorney Walter Kane, aligned with the Teamsters and held a press conference here last summer announcing its formation and goals. Muhammad said he has spent the ensuing months not only training fighters (as he does for a living), but representing JAB at assorted functions.

He said the Teamsters had a large presence at an Oct. 31 boxing card in Providence, R.I., in which JAB and its mission were discussed in depth.

"This is a slow process but I'm very patient," Muhammad said. "I've been all over the place, signing guys up.

"So far we've got about 200 members ... fighters who are interested in us and who understand what the union offers.

"But we're not collecting dues yet and it'll probably be six more months before we're really up and running and collecting dues. Right now we're still in the recruitment and organizational stage."

He said he's looking for endorsements from various key figures in the sport, including Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and George Foreman.

"I don't need them to join the union and they don't need a union," Muhammad said of the forementioned group. "All I want is their endorsement. Even if they don't give (any money), if they'll just say 'This is great' it would go a long ways to help us."

He said he spoke to Jones following his Nov. 4 fight at Mandalay Bay and that Jones invited him to his Pensacola, Fla., home to further discuss the union.

"I need to sit with Roy and Oscar and Shane and George and explain to them how it works," Muhammad said of being a front man for the union. "I need to show them how we can help fighters with jobs, benefits and medical expenses.

"This is a bigger project than I thought it would be and it has just taken more time than I thought it would at first."