Steve Marcus

Joseph chats with cornerman Rafael Garcia during a last visit to Top Rank Gym, where he used to train. At left is heavyweight boxer Duncan Dokiwari, who represented Nigeria in the 1996 Olympics. Thanks to donations from the local boxing community and pro bono medical services, Kiwanuka was able to have eye surgery and return to his home in Uganda.

By Jeff Haney

Tue, Apr 8, 2008 (2 a.m.)

As they were driving to the airport last week, Joseph Kiwanuka put his hand on Frank Slaughter’s shoulder and said he wanted to express his thanks.

You have really helped me out, he told Slaughter.

“I got choked up for a minute, but then I just said, ‘Joseph, it was my pleasure,’ ” Slaughter said. “I know he was thinking about everything we had been through. He had been trying for years, and he was excited that he was finally heading home.”

Home for Kiwanuka is Uganda, which he left 15 years ago with a one-way ticket to the United States to pursue professional boxing.

A super middleweight title contender in the late 1990s, Kiwanuka fell on hard times after his boxing career ended.

When Slaughter took up his cause last year, Kiwanuka, who had had 38 pro fights, was broke and either staying with friends or living on the Las Vegas streets.

The former fighter had been diagnosed with “traumatic cataracts,” an injury caused by absorbing punches in the boxing ring. He was in need of surgery on both eyes.

“From the first time I saw Joseph at the gym (at UNLV) and I noticed he was watching the TV with his nose almost pressed up against it, and that his clothes were soiled, I knew he needed some help,” said Slaughter, a volunteer assistant coach with the UNLV boxing team.

“I said to myself, ‘This is Joseph Kiwanuka. I used to watch him on ESPN.’ At that point I turned to a couple of the guys in the gym and said, ‘Let’s get him a ticket home.’ It snowballed from there, and since it was my idea it became my responsibility.”

Several anonymous benefactors came forward to assist Kiwanuka in finding a place to stay and in raising money for the operations, although in the end much of the medical costs were forgiven. Kiwanuka underwent the eye procedures with Dr. Thomas Kelly of Silver State Eye Care and at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

Even with their help, it wasn’t always a smooth road, Slaughter said.

“I kept telling him, ‘We’re going to get you home,’ ” Slaughter said. “But we had to go through the first eye surgery, then the healing phase, then the second eye surgery. All this time, I was telling him to hang in there.

“I would buy him phone cards so he could call home and talk to his sister. If I gave him $20, he would go buy phone cards rather than go eat. Oftentimes I would have to give him money and take him out to eat at the same time. He would rather get the phone card than eat, because he was lonely. So I understood that.”

Kiwanuka was so nervous about undergoing the eye operations that he refused the procedure until Slaughter convinced him it was the right thing to do.

“Here I am, trying to talk him into it,” Slaughter said. “So now I’m worried if his surgery didn’t work out and his eyes were harmed, then I would have to live with that. It was like worrying about one of your kids.”

The procedures were successful, leaving Kiwanuka with vision that’s less than perfect but good enough to lead a normal life. Before the surgery, Kiwanuka’s vision in his right eye was 20/400. Glasses could not help because of the nature of the injury.

When he arrived in his homeland last week, Kiwanuka was greeted by a crowd and an emotional scene at the airport with tears and hugs, Slaughter reported. Some old friends and relatives were concerned about Kiwanuka’s slender build, probably because they hadn’t seen him in at least eight years, when he was in his physical prime.

Using money Kiwanuka had sent home when he was still boxing, his sister purchased some land along Lake Victoria in Uganda.

Kiwanuka, 36, said he planned to buy an outboard motor to attach to a boat and do some fishing in the lake, and perhaps rent space on the boat to other fishermen.

“He is going to have a better life,” Slaughter said. “All this kid ever did his whole life was box. He kind of got into the boxing mill. I think he got used. As he didn’t generate money anymore, everybody took off and basically left him on the street.

“I don’t think it has to be that way. I think the boxing community in Las Vegas should have an obligation to help those who have contributed to the sport.”