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Apr 8, 2009 11:01 pm US/Central
Famed Minn. Boxer Battles Lou Gehrig's Disease
(WCCO)
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Scott LeDoux came from small town Crosby, Minn. Even though he took part in a brutal and violent sport, LeDoux actually comes off as very good-natured and funny.
CBS
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Scott LeDoux was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The muscles that made him famous are dying.
CBS
Listen to Scott LeDoux describe a fight and you know he's one tough dude.
"That's Marty Monroe, in the third round. I knocked him down and I broke my hand in three places but I went on to fight a 10-round fight and I won the decision."
LeDoux is perhaps the most famous Minnesotan to enter the ring.
"Scott LeDoux, the fighting Frenchman. I call him 'The Champ,' one of the greatest heavyweight fighters I ever saw box, and I saw him box a lot of times," said Don Shelby while introducing him on a recent WCCO Radio segment.
He came from small town Crosby, Minn. Even though he took part in a brutal and violent sport, LeDoux actually comes off as very good-natured and funny.
"[Mohammed] Ali was the only one to hit me and talk to me at the same time. And then [George] Foreman hit me so hard my ancestors in France felt it. Oh my gosh, Foreman was such a hard puncher," said LeDoux.
These days LeDoux and wife Carol live in Anoka County, but eight months ago there came a knockout punch they never saw coming.
"When she tells me right after this interview I gotta go lay down and put the oxygen on, that's what I'm going to do," he said.
The muscles that made him famous are dying. Scott LeDoux has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
"I don't think anybody can really understand how really horrendous this is for a person like Scott who has depended upon his physicality all of his life," said Carol LeDoux.
ALS is horrible. Eventually this 60-year-old ex-boxer won't be able to control his muscles. Worse yet, the disease won't affect the brain. He'll be able to see, hear and feel things get worse. There is no treatment, there is no cure.
"You deal with it, every day it's a battle," said Carol LeDoux. "But most of the time we're able to realize that the grief will come soon enough and we'd better be happy with what we have today."
Scott LeDoux is no stranger to heartbreak. His first wife Sandy died of breast cancer in 1989. He took care of her while she underwent 11 surgeries and two experimental treatments, suffering for 10 years. He raised their two children alone.
Mike Woodley has known Scott LeDoux for more than 25 years and calls him a real-life Rocky Balboa. Woodley is putting together a fundraiser and musical tribute to his friend.
Jimi Jamison of the band Survivor is just one of the acts scheduled for the event, along with Frank Stallone, the former singer of Santana. Woodley promises "19 top 20 songs from the 80s."
"Scott's the first one to show up, last one to leave, signing every autograph," explained Woodley. "He's always given to everybody. There's not an event he wouldn't show up for, there isn't an event he wouldn't help you with."
Woodley wants to see Scott LeDoux in front of a crowd again with his arms in the air, a moment the one-time boxer says he'll savor.
In fact, he savors everything, living day-to-day and not worrying about the future -- always the fighter, doing what he can to make it from one round to another and finish the fight.
"It's fun for me when I dream about dying: scuba diving and skiing and playing under-par golf. That's heaven," he said. "My faith has been good to me and Christ has been good to me."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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