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On the ropes: A Times investigation of how California has failed retired boxers

A man stands in front of a screen on which an old boxing poster is projected.
Gonzalo Montellano, a retired lightweight, said he was never told he had $20,000 in an unclaimed California Professional Boxers’ Pension Plan.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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California created a pension plan for professional boxers 40 years ago, promising fighters who provided the public flash and drama during their careers that they would not be forgotten when they faced the challenges of aging, battered bodies.

But a Times investigation revealed that the pension program failed in its primary mission to locate and inform boxers of their benefits, maintained inadequate records and had not set aside enough money to pay the pensions it owed.

Read The Times’ investigation and subsequent coverage below:

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