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Ex-champion, aged 60, not yet ready to hang up gloves

Saoul Mamby poses for a picture at John's Gym in New York on Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

Saoul Mamby probably shouldn't be fighting, but he's been doing it for so long there aren't many volunteers to tell him to stop.

The grandfather of 11 first fought for money in 1969. Once a world champion who fought on the same card as Muhammad Ali, he's fought around the world in places you'd be hard pressed to find on a map, but where he could always find a payday.

The other night he went 10 rounds with a man half his age in the Cayman Islands. He took the fight on a few days notice, figuring that even a few months shy of 61 he could beat a guy who had lost 13 of his last 14 fights.

He couldn't, but at his age one more loss isn't going to deter him.

"I didn't get hurt or beat down. It's just that my tools weren't sharp," Mamby said. "Now that I've got 10 good rounds under me I'm ready to go again."

Just when that will be depends on the ability of his manager, Steve Tannenbaum, to convince a boxing commission somewhere that 60 is the new 30 and that a fighter shouldn't be discriminated against just because he's only a few months away from collecting retirement pay.

In boxing, that's all anyone needs to sell a few tickets. Add a senior citizen to the mix, and start opening some more windows at the box office.

The fact that Mamby's now fought in five different decades and might be the oldest fighter ever to step into a ring should be cause for alarm.

Should be, because you talk to Mamby and it all makes sense. Well, almost all.

His motivation goes back to the jungles of Vietnam where he served in the infantry. He and his friends would sit around, joke and laugh, and talk about what they were going to do after the war.

After seeing some of those friends leave the country in body bags, Mamby made a vow to himself to lead the life he wanted if he got out alive.

Mamby speaks with surprising eloquence for a man who has spent most of his life trading punches to the head.

He recalls going to Indonesia to defend against the local hero, the fight organizers put him up in a luxury hotel and assigned a gorgeous young woman to take care of his every need.

Mamby smelled a plant. He had the girl wake him up for road work and drive him around, but nothing else.

"She was a beautiful woman, but I wasn't going to lose my title for one night of pleasure," he said.
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