Usmanullah's plight highlights how Pakistan treats its medal-winning boxers

45-year-old won silver medal at 1994 Asian Games, is fighting brain tumour now

KARACHI: A boxing hero can be saved, but only if Pakistan cares about him and athlete Usmanullah Khan, who represented the country in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics, is worth saving.

Usmannullah, 45, is bed-ridden in Faisalabad, but even though he is not able to even speak on the phone anymore due to the brain tumor he was diagnosed with, his brother, also an international boxer Rizwanullah says, "Usmanullah wants to get better, and he has so many plans to promote boxing, but he is on the bed now, and we are looking for his treatment.

"We don't even feel like saying anything to the government or the officials or anyone, it is not like they do not know who Usman is. Even on the bed with this illness he talks about serving the sport, because that is all he loves," Rizwanullah told The Express Tribune.

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Usmanullah has represented Pakistan and won silver medal in the 1994 Asian Games light welterweight event, and Rizwanulah says the impeccable boxer that Usmanullah was, he toured 29 countries and won 19 international medals.

Just this week Pakistan lost a boxing great and South Asian Games gold medallist Abdul Majeed Qubmbrani due to kidney failure in Karachi.

"My brother really made a big impact and him and I have been into boxing even though we are here in Faisalabad," Rizwanullah tells with nostalgia and love for his older sibling. "He would go compete in Manila, Philippines, Australia, US, everywhere, because he was really that good. He competed with all his heart, because boxing was something he knew and grew to love even more with time."

Riwanullah, a lawyer by profession now, said he had put boxing on the back burner for himself, but Usmanullah wanted boxing to grow in Faisalabad and Punjab.

Admittedly, most of the boxing legends come from Sindh or Balochistan and even Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but Rizwanuulah said that it was his and Usman's mentor Malik Jamil Akhtar, who got them into boxing at a young age when they were both in school.

"Usman really believes that more boxers from our gym in Ghulam Muhammadabad can serve the country, but now in Faisalabad and even in Punjab boxing is not taken into schools or colleges because there was a ban from 2005 onwards. That is something that worried Usman too, but we do hold events privately and Usman believes that in his capacity he can promote boxing. He dedicated his life for it and still tells me when we are talking that he would want to tell the government and the boxing federation that there can be a strategy to help the youth through sports but I don't know if they would listen," said Rizwanullah.

He added that Usmanullah may be suffering from a brain tumour but his spirits are always high. "He tells me all the time that when he will recover from the tumor after the surgery, he would do so much for boxing."

However, Rizwanullah feels that there is a disappointment in more ways than one. "We haven't appealed to anyone for help, he needs a surgery and we need at least Rs4 million. The way we feel about it is why should we appeal like this and let down our brother who has given his life to the sport, do the federation and local authorities not know he is suffering? Can they not see?" asks Rizwannullah.

Pakistan's international referee judge Ali Akbar Shah Qadri has made the effort to inform the authorities like the Pakistan Boxing Federation and other forums, but his appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

Rizwanullah adds that Usman had been to Canada as well for the treatment but returned and now he is in need of a surgery to defeat the brain tumour.

"He can come out of it but it is the surgery that is needed and we as a family will do everything we can. He really wants to beat this illness," said Rizwanullah.

Usmanullah has also represented Wapda and Pakistan Steel Mills domestically before he left the sport in 2003, but he kept serving his department.

"He did his job for the department, Wapda and was there till five years ago, that was before he was diagnosed with brain tumour, almost two years ago, but so far even his own old department have not contacted him or offered any help," rued Rizwanullah.

He adds that Usmanullah however did not see this with a defeatist attitude and continues to find inspiration from within, inspiration from his favourite boxers like Captain Sultan Mehmood and Muhammad Ali.

"He is obviously lying on the bed like that and he is thinking about everything all the time, but he is fighting this battle too," said Rizwanullah.

Meanwhile, Qadri, who has seen Usmanullah at his prime and almost sees him as his son believes that Pakistan is failing its boxers in the worst way possible.

"It is the people who have really served this country that suffer, the ones who really sacrificed and dedicated their lives for boxing as sport are suffering and they are such honourable people that they don't ask for much, but it is a failure of the worst kind by the government and sports authorities and Pakistan Boxing Federation that they ignore, forget and take the heroes for granted. He won us an Asia medal, went to Olympics, qualified for Olympics for Pakistan, but how is he treated?" asks Qadri.

"They should be celebrated, instead they are forgotten," concludes Qadri.