After losing a world champion boxer’s pension records, California finally admits error

Boxing & MMA,Times Investigations

Melody Gutierrez March 5, 2024

For years, Paul Banke desperately needed the money he believed California owed him.

The former super-bantamweight world champion boxer had been struggling with cancer treatment and had to sell his car

during the pandemic

when the transmission went out

during the pandemic.

Banke, who made headlines in 1995 when he became the first major U.S. boxer to publicly acknowledge that he had AIDS, was certain he was owed a pension from California’s unique retirement system for boxers. But Banke said the California State Athletic Commission, which administers the 40-year-old pension plan, repeatedly told him over the years that he didn’t qualify.

On Monday,FOR PRINT: “Earlier this month,”

after numerous inquiries from The Times, the commission admitted that it had inexplicably lost Banke’s pension records and voted to pay him a lump sum of $21,000.

Unable to accurately calculate what Banke is due, the commission approved an amount equal to the average payout to boxers over the past three years.

“I don’t know if he’s getting shortchanged or if we’re overpaying him. I don’t know,” Andy Foster, the commission’s executive officer, told The Times. “From the information I have, this is the fairest way I can see to pay him.

The commission said the lost pension was likely an “isolated incident” but could not rule out other boxers

beinghaving been

affected.

The commission’s vote

Monday

followed inquiries from The Times over the past six months about why Banke had been denied a pension when boxing records showed he had

fought

more than double the minimum rounds

fought

in California to qualify. It also follows a Times investigation last year that found 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.

Foster said Banke’s pension records

diddo

not appear to have been transferred when the California Professional Boxers Pension Plan was overhauled in the 1990s.

Banke was a hard-hitter who defeated Daniel Zaragoza in 1990 to win a World Boxing Council title at the Forum in Inglewood. That

same

year, The Times described Banke as a “crowd-pleasing slugger.”

Now 60, Banke lives on Social Security disability insurance in Pasadena with his dog and birds. He said the pension money will allow him to buy a car.

“This is a lot of money for me,” Banke said.

The

boxers

plan offers pensions to any professional boxer, regardless of residency, who logged at least 75 scheduled rounds in California with no more than a three-year break. Pension amounts are determined by how many rounds the

a

boxer fought and the size of the

ir

purses. Boxers can claim their pensions at

ago

50

years old

, or earlier

if used

for medical or educational purposes.

The plan,

which is

funded through an 88-cent-per-ticket fee, was created in 1982 to provide a modicum of financial security to retired fighters, according to the state statute. More than $4.5 million has been paid to 265 retired fighters, with most claims coming

with

in the last decade. The average pension is a one-time $17,000 payment.

In interviews with

Dozens of boxers

told The Times in interviews

over the past year that they

most told The Times they

couldnt recall ever receiving information about their

pension

accounts during their careers and criticized the state for not making more of an effort to find them. Following The Times’ investigation, the commission pledged to step up efforts to locate boxers and paid a record number of pensions last year. However, even with the increased payouts, fewer than 1 in 4 boxers who could claim

their

pensions did so last year, according to The Times analysis of commission documents.

Banke said

over the past 10 years

he called the athletic commission multiple times

over the last 10 years

and each time

he

was told he did not qualify. Following The Times’ investigation, Banke’s friends told him to keep pushing the commission to explain why he was being rebuffed. Banke said he was getting nowhere

before contactingwhen he contacted

The Times.

“It’s alarming,” said Hector Lizarraga, a champion featherweight who filed for his pension last year after

beinghe was

contacted by The Times. “I told him he had to be persistent and keep asking. It’s unacceptable. It’s not like he’s any fighter. We are talking about a former world champion.”

Foster said there could be other boxers

similarly

owed pensions

for whomwho

the commission has no record

of

, but he’s doubtful.

I mean, there might be, but we

we

did a little query, and I can’t find one, Foster said. We were a little bit concerned about that. But there might be another one, I don’t know. But I think this is kind of an anomaly.”