A new fan of Boxing quickly hears many tales of broke, destitute former World Champions who once had fight purses in the millions and a mansion. It's a cliche that happens to be true. Out of thousands of fighters, I can only think of a small handful who remained financially well-off during all their years after Boxing.

When I was young in my late teens and early 20s, I used to think there should be some kind of system in place in Boxing to look out for these guys, and help them out with some kind of long-term financial plan because it's an embarrassment to the sport to have an immortal fighter like the Great Joe Louis working as a greeter at a hotel/casino in Vegas.
These men typically come from the poorest neighborhoods, have little education, and get hit on the head for a living; how are they supposed to manage millions with no business training nor business acumen? In addition, they're in business with some of the sharpest, most dirty, most cut-throat businessmen in the country. Business-wise, they're ridiculously over-matched, and must put all their trust in a manager who's probably going to rip them off. And you've got some serious conflict-of-issue problems when the promoter is also managing because the promoter ALWAYS wants to pay the fighter the least amount possible, while the manager is supposed to be negotiating hard to get the fighter the highest amount possible. Why is this allowed? This sport is oft run in a very unprofessional manner because it's history is as an outlaw sport run by the seedy underbelly of society... and it remains so.

I digress...
I don't think that way anymore.
Hey, this is a man who earned his money the hard way with his sweat, blood, and tears.
He put in years in the training hall learning his trade, and finally seized the brass ring and the big paydays even as he left pieces of himself in the ring.
He earned it, it's his money, and if he decides to squander it foolishly and take no advice, then that's on him. Nowadays when I hear of these sad cases, I say "That's too bad", but hey, it's his hard-earned money and his decisions, and no one has the right to put a babysitter on a full-grown man, and try to tell him how he should spend his own hard-earned money.