Former light heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, a co-founder of the Joint Association of Boxers, said he has wanted to form a boxers' union for a long time.

Muhammad and Walter Kane, the organization's other co-founder, said JAB has affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to represent active boxers. Kane, a New York labor attorney, said there was a unanimous vote by about 40 boxers who attended a meeting Monday at Bally's for JAB to affiliate with the Teamsters.

"It was always in the back of my head," said Muhammad, the WBA light heavyweight champion in 1980 and 1981. "There are only a handful of us who really make it, not only being champions, but by making a significant amount of money to sustain ourselves. At the end of the day, you see boxers who don't make it. You see guys who are down and out. I just felt it was time to do something about the situation."

Muhammad, a Las Vegas resident who is now a trainer, said the purpose of the union is to engage in collective bargaining with promoters so boxers can receive a benefits package, including a pension plan and a medical plan.

"We were trying to affiliate ourselves with the best union in the world," Muhammad said. "At this time, it's the Teamsters."

Another organization, Fighters' Initiative for Support and Training (FIST), has been in operation since 1998 and has been affiliated with the AFL-CIO since March. Joe Sano, president of FIST, said his group is primarily involved in helping former boxers adapt to life outside the ring.

Kane said a boxers' union would help clean up the sport's image.

"The union is now official," Muhammad said. "We hope there are no more sad stories. There shouldn't be any more fighters falling on hard times because of this union I formed.

"If you don't make it in the fighting industry and you are still paying your dues, there may be a job at the end of the line with the Teamsters. You'd have a job, you'd have a pension, you'd have benefits. Any promoters who would be against this, they're not for boxers."

Muhammad said he has received calls from England, Russia and Africa for information about joining the union.

"This has been needed for years," he said. "Guys have had ideas but haven't put it to work yet. They were leery of taking that first step. Walter and I took the first step."

Said Teamsters general president James P. Hoffa: "Every other sport is organized; now boxers will be organized. Boxers need health insurance. Boxers need pensions. Boxers need to get a fair share of the proceeds for their labor."

Promoter Cedric Kushner said he gives his support to the new union.

"It is a wonderful thing," he said. "It is an idea which should have been in effect for a long time. Obviously, I am in favor of anything that enhances the image of boxing. I am in favor of anything that provides security to the fighters."