22.12.06 – By Michael Marley, exclusive from www.BoxingConfidential.com: NEW YORK CITY — Ho, ho, homeless. That is the tear jerking status of former world junior middleweight champion and US Army Gulf War veteran Keith “Brooklyn Assassin” Mullings.
Spare him your Christmas cheer. The 10-1 underdog whose career highlight was a December 6, 1997, ninth-round KO of the legendary Terrible Terry Norris (which cost Norris a signed $4.5 million deal to fight Oscar de la Hoya), is residing in a homeless shelter on Bedford Avenue in the rough-and-tumble Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn..
Neither Mullings, 39, nor his two teenaged children will be watching “Miracle On 34th Street” or sitting around the fireplace enjoying Jimmy Stewart’s spiritual awakening by angels in “It’s A Wonderful Life.” The Mullings have no time for such holiday frivolities as they live meal to meal, day by day, in an overcrowded shelter filled with mental patients, sexual predators and drug addicts.
“It is a sad, sad story,” a source close to Mullings told me. “He was an artillery man in the US Army during the Gulf War and he has been diagnosed as suffering from PSTD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which was known in decades past as “shell shock” or “battle or combat fatigue.”
“He was around Gleason’s Gym in late summer this year,” the source said, “and Blimp (Delen Parsley) and Cowboy (another trainer) were trying to help him get in condition to launch a ring comeback. He and his wife, Ruthie, also an Army and Gulf War veteran had broken up. She took the two younger kids and Keith took the two older ones. Keith was working out but then he had problems leaving his kids at the shelter during the day with all the nut jobs and sexual perverts they have in there. He would be in the gym working hard but his mind was racing, worrying if his kids were safe.”
Mullings captured the WBC 154-pound title by crunching Norris in a back-and-forth fight in which Mullings was ahead on one card, behind on a second and even at 48-48 on the third. Foolishly, Norris’ $250,000 “tune up” became a tune out and there would be no multimillion dollar payday against Oscar. Norris is, no doubt, a future Boxing Hall Of Fame member.
Mullings finished his career with an undistinguished record of 16-8-1 with 11 KOs. He defended the crown once against David Ciarlante of Italy but then went to Spain and was dethroned by Javier Castillejo on by majority decision.
In his last bout, on April 7, 2001, Mullings was stopped in two rounds by Steve Roberts in London. In a fight prior to that, Mullings hung in there for 12 rounds in Pittsburgh as he lost a unanimous decision to Ronald “Winky” Wright.
If you see Keith Mullings on the streets of Brooklyn, save your hearty holiday wishes.
Save your Happy New Year greetings.
Christmas and New Years will be just the same as the other 363 days of the year for the Mullings family. They will just be two more days when this good and courageous man, who proved his mettle in the ring and in combat representing his country, will be trying to find a way for he and his two children to scrape by.
Bah, humbug! Could you criticize Keith Mullings if that is how he feels this holiday season?
I know I couldn’t.