Thaindian News

That Scott LeDoux was a boxing legend is only evident from the pictures and memories on his wall. The boxer who has been in the ring with legends like Foreman, Ali, Norton and Holmes is 60 and has begun his new fight against a disorder called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. it is not easy for him, and he says, “It’s very disheartening for me, because I’ve always been a physical guy.”

LeDoux says the symptoms came up only a few years ago. Now he gets twitches in his arms and legs and some of his muscles have lost feeling. He says, “My arms have gone away, and my legs, it’s twitching in my legs, and it’s in my stomach now.”

The disorder is a neuron disease that weakens the victim’s muscles to the point of his becoming paralyzed. There is no cure or treatment available for ALS and it is usually fatal. The changes have struck LeDoux suddenly, “Now I have to hold my coffee cup with two hands,” he says.

The disease has not only made life difficult to adjust with for LeDoux but also his family because “It’s been pretty tough on them. In particular, it’s been hard on my wife. She has to button my shirts. She’s had to put my socks on, help me get dressed.” He does not want to succumb to the weakness in his muscles yet, though. Like a true boxer he said, “I’m in a main event for the world title right now, and I gotta fight the fight.” He is trying to raise money for others to fight the illness and the Scott LeDoux Concert to Fight ALS in Elko raised enough money to make a beginning.