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The plight of blind and broke former boxer Sugar...

TACOMA, Wash. -- The plight of blind and broke former boxer Sugar Ray Seales has attracted national attention, but so far not much local interest, as a fund-raising show planned in his honor may be cancelled due to low ticket sales.

A CBS News television crew has spent the last two days in Tacoma interviewing the former Tacoma middleweight and lone U.S. boxing gold medalist in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

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But only 4,000 tickets have been sold so far for a show planned later this month in Tacoma to raise money for Seales' medical expenses.

What makes Seales' story even more interesting is a recent decision by another boxer, Sugar Ray Leonard, to return to the ring in March following recent eye surgery to mend a detached retina.

Leonard, a 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist, was the world welterweight champion but retired two months following the surgery.

Seales, during television filming in Tacoma, offered some terrifying predictions about what will happen to Leonard.

'He's been thrown to the hungry killer dogs who will go for his eyes,' warned Seales. 'They'll go after him and try to beat him any way they can.'

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Seales described himself as a 'fighter who will always keep fighting,' and hopes that someday his sight might be restored. He has had several eye surgeries because of boxing injuries.

According to an affidavit from Puyallup ophthalmologist Randolph Lindblad, Seales is completely blind in his left eye and his corrected vision in his right eye qualifies him as legally blind.

The television crew followed Seales to the Tacoma Dome to check on ticket sales for a Jan. 20 benefit designed to help him erase about $100,000 in medical debts.

The Sammy Davis Jr. Las Vegas Review benefit is in danger of being canceled if ticket sales do not increase in the next few days.

Ed Garner, Seales' manager, said he will cancel the show Wednesday if sufficient interest is not shown by then. Approximately 4,000 tickets have been sold so far, Garner said.

Besides the hour and 45-minute Sammy Davis Jr. show, Garner said he had arranged for a gallery of sports figures to appear, including former heavyweight champion Mohammed Ali, former World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, WBA lightweight champion Ray Mancini, world light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks, as well as Ed Marinaro, a former pro football player who now performs on TV's 'Hill Street Blues.'

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Garner said if sufficient money was left over after medical and show expenses were paid, he had plans to set up Seales in business, rather than establish a trust fund.

'I want to put Sugar Ray into business so he can maintain himself without having to borrow or indebt himself again within our community,' Garner said.

'Sugar Ray Seales is boxing -- he's champion of boxing. He's brought notoriety to Tacoma through boxing. I imagine boxing is what he should be in,' he said.

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