California is reviewing the nation’s only retirement plan for retired boxers after a Times investigation found the safety net for vulnerable boxers falls short of its most critical mission of informing benefits due.

The California State Athletic Commission, which administers the little-known 40-year retirement plan, said it will send annual statements to all established boxers starting early next year and has called in state investigators to search for fighters with unclaimed money, some of whom owed for decades.

About 200 boxers could have claimed a pension last year, but only 12 of them (6%) did.

So,

according to the Times research.

More than two dozen retired boxers who owed their pensions told the newspaper they could not recall ever receiving information from the commission stating their eligibility or how to apply. They knew little about other retirement benefits, such as the ability to withdraw money early to pay for medical expenses or vocational training.

Some, like heavyweight journeyman Mike Jameson, said they never did

even

Heard about the California Professional Boxers’ Pension Plan, which is paid for through a ticket sales fee for boxing events.

“I don’t mean to offend them, but they could have done a much better job of letting people know,” said Jameson, a 68-year-old retired boxer from San Jose who first learned he owed a pension from The Times. “It’s great to hear they’re going to do more.”

Jameson applied for his benefits

in April

and last week

(May 22nd)

received a check for $12,000.

State Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) said he was alarmed when he read the Times story and immediately called the Athletics Commission to make sure changes were made not only to the boxers’ pension, but also to a bill he is drafting a similar retirement plan for mixed martial arts fighters.

California created the nation’s only pension for aging boxers. But it fails many of them

Haney amended Assembly Bill 1136 to require the committee to send annual statements informing prospective incumbent MMA fighters of their account balances.

The General Assembly will vote on the bill this week and, if passed as expected, it would go to the Senate.

“The boxer’s pension is critical, but it can be improved,” Haney said in an interview outside the conference rooms. “I hope that as we move this MMA pension bill through the process, we correct some of the challenges that exist with the boxers pension and not replicate them and that we solve it for boxers as well. We need to let people know who is eligible and we need to make sure they have access to it or this isn’t going to work.”

The MMA bill notes that professional athletes in martial arts as a group could become injured, destitute and “extraordinary disabilities” as a result of their profession, including “acute and traumatic brain injury, as a result of multiple concussions and of repeated concussions.” exposure to a variety of subconcussive punches and kicks, eye injuries, including retinal tears, holes and detachments, and other neurological disorders.”

If the bill becomes law, the committee will pass rules governing how many fights are required to qualify for the MMA pension. Haney said he expects fighters to become unconditional after 12 to 14 fights in California.

The California pension for boxers was created in 1982 and primarily provides one-time payments to fighters who have logged at least 75 scheduled rounds in California without a break of more than three years. The amount a boxer receives is based on the number of rounds they have fought and the purse for those bouts.

Once a boxer turns 50 and becomes eligible to apply for retirement, the amount due is determined and will not be increased.

Retirement plan experts said the longer it takes a boxer to claim

their pension, the more it will fall in value due to inflation.

Currently, the boxer’s pension pays an average of $17,000 in a

once

lump sum payment to retirees, according to a Times analysis of commission data.

The Boxers Retirement Plan began paying eligible boxers in 1999 and to date has provided 235 retired boxers with a total of $4 million. Most of this has been paid in the past ten years. However, there are another 200 boxers who owe a pension and have not claimed it.

“They never said anything about it when I was pro,” says welterweight Mike Dallas Jr., 36, of Bakersfield, who retired

of boxing in 2020.

California created a pension for boxers but says it struggled to find them. So we did

As a result, he doubted whether he was eligible for a pension.

The commission has verified to The Times that Dallas has a pension, which he can claim when he turns 50.

Dallas learned from a Times reporter that the

plan allows boxers as young as 36 to withdraw all or part of the money they have built up to pay for their vocational training.

“I could have used that when I went to trucking school,” Dallas said.

He said he recently learned it

his father, Mike Dallas Sr., owes nearly $13,000 in benefits. Dallas Sr., who fought as a lightweight, died in 2012 of

leukemia cancer

at 45. Dallas Jr. said his father probably never knew he had a pension, which was eligible to be paid to his family immediately after his death.

“I never knew about it, nobody knew, not my dad, not anyone,” said Dallas Jr., who plans to file a claim for his father’s pension.

Retirement planning experts said a retirement plan structured like California’s should send annual statements once an individual vests, to ensure recipients are aware of their benefits and can plan for their future. It also ensures that the plan is in regular contact with its beneficiaries.

However, the athletic commission has waited until a boxer turns 50 before trying to make contact for the first time. By then, the vast majority of addresses in files will be decades old.

In response to The Times story, the committee will begin sending statements when a boxer first meets the minimum requirements for a future retirement and every year thereafter. That change is expected to begin early next year, said commission executive officer Andy Foster.

The agency is also now using the Department of Consumer Affairs’ research division to obtain up-to-date contact information for boxers with unclaimed pensions, said Foster, who also plans to hire a private investigator to track down additional fighters.

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The committee is in the process of posting a new license application that includes a retirement confirmation form that boxers sign to ensure new fighters know they are automatically enrolled in the plan.

Over the past decade, the commission has paid an average of 15 boxers per year. So far this year, the committee says it has sent pension checks to 10 boxers. Another three will be paid as soon as the committee transfers money to pay them, while four others are in the process of filing paperwork.

The Times spoke to several others who said they plan to apply for their newly discovered pension in the coming weeks.

Foster said he has set a goal of benefiting 50 boxers this year, which would double the number of boxers

ever

paid in one year, according to commission data analyzed by The Times.

“I’m just trying to get people paid,” Foster said. “If they owe money, get them paid.”

However, the pension plan has a rocky history of generating enough income and it doesn’t have enough money to pay all the boxers who can claim a pension now without reducing what others receive in the future.

The plan set aside just 14% of the $2.1 million needed to pay boxers with late claims, including those who didn’t file for retirement before they turned 54.

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If the commission has more late claims than available funds, it would reduce the amount of money in the accounts of fighters under 50.

Foster downplayed the impact of a large number of boxers filing for retirement all at once.

“When you’re in your 30s and you’re established, you might see some decline,” Foster said. “It could happen, but the market will probably move up and they’ll see it back.”

The committee is looking at additional sources of income for the boxer’s pension and plans to increase the entry fee from 88 cents to $1 in the coming months, Foster said.

The MMA retirement account requires that plan to be funded with a ticket fee that is expected to be set at $1 at those events and souvenir sales. At its board meeting next week, the committee will discuss a plan to pursue additional funding for both pensions by creating a special license plate, which has brought in millions for other state programs.

Haney, the legislator who carries the MMA retirement bill, said he would like to see the boxers and MMA retirement plans provide an annual check that can better assist fighters in retirement.

“A lot of these [MMA] fighters would be eligible for it in 20, 30 years, so we have some time to get this right,” Haney said. “In the case of the boxers’ [plan]we have to fix the flaws.”