BoxRec

Most of the guys we have been talking about were also active in the early 1980's.
Spinks was the best fighter of this group. Some people have misconception that Spinks beat a lot of old guys, however consider:
Marvin Johnson was only 26 when Spinks beat him, Eddie Mustapha Muammad was only 29, Qawi was only 30, Lopez was only 29.

As for Saad Muhammad being washed up when he lost to Qawi, I've been always on the fence with this.
On the one hand Saad was only 27 and only had 36 fights. Normally a fighter like that would be considered in his prime.
However, Saad Muhammad had been in so many wars that may have shortened his career. He looked like he was starting to decline in his last fight before he fought Qawi the first time, when he fought Jerry Martin. He looked lethargic for much of that fight. Then if you consider his first fight after he lost to Qawi the 2nd time. He got stopped in 3 rounds by a journeyman. He was never really a factor again.

I guess I would take a middle position and say that Saad Muhammad was starting to slip when he fought Qawi, and that Qawi accerlated his complete decline in their two fights.

Qawi should get some credit for beating Saad Muhammad, even though Saad Muhammad was at his 100% best. If he was at the top of game and fought Qawi, I would still lean toward Qawi, but it would have been more competitive.

A few more guys from this era that were tough contenders were James Scott, Maury Sutherland, and Jerry Martin. There were really some great fights in this division during this time.

bump

This is just such a great topic, the more opinions the better. What a moment in LHW history.

silkov wrote:

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:silk


im confused on the low rating of qawi? he completley dominated saad muhammad

Saad was just a shodow of himself when he fought Quawi... I think a peak Saad would have beaten Dwight... thats not to say that Quawi wasn't good but the guys above him would probably have been able to outbox him...

how was saad past his prime? he was 28 and hadnt lost in years? wut makes u say he was a shadow when he fought qawi?

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:

silkov wrote:

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:silk


im confused on the low rating of qawi? he completley dominated saad muhammad

Saad was just a shodow of himself when he fought Quawi... I think a peak Saad would have beaten Dwight... thats not to say that Quawi wasn't good but the guys above him would probably have been able to outbox him...

how was saad past his prime? he was 28 and hadnt lost in years? wut makes u say he was a shadow when he fought qawi?

He's already told you that if you DID watch the films you'd see Saad Muhammad taking a lot of hard punches to the head even in fights he eventually won. He was starting to look stiff-legged and jaded going into the Qawi fight. As other people have said, he wasn't completely washed up (in the 1st fight anyway) but he wasn't in his prime. You're a man who loves to talk of prime. With your limited knowledge of this era are you actually saying the 1st Qawi fight was Saad in his prime???

Merely stating that someone was 28 and hadn't lost in years shows a lack of understanding of that era. Your best bet, brocky, is to stick to the old b/w stuff that most people haven't seen and/or don't care about. That way you can continue to look like you know what you are ranting about.

And what's with this 'wut' and 'u' business? As Peter Griffin might say, That really grinds my gears.

as i said i dont know much about the era. so im asking u guys a question how was saad past his prime going into the qawi fight cause going by his record it didnt look like he was.

didnt qawi dominate him easily? makes u wonder if saad could ever beat him

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:as i said i dont know much about the era. so im asking u guys a question how was saad past his prime going into the qawi fight cause going by his record it didnt look like he was.

didnt qawi dominate him easily? makes u wonder if saad could ever beat him

That's the problem with simply looking at records and drawing conclusions.

You know full well that the best way to get the full picture is to watch the bouts. Almost all those great fights at 175 from the 70's / 80's easily are available.

Hell, I can send you many of them on DVD if you have something I am interested in. And I'm not talking about you hitting Ted Spooner's heavy bag.

Decagon wrote:Downloading fights is another option. I've managed to grow a nice collection of the 1970s and early 1980s light heavyweight division. I've got to get people more interested in uploading on Megaupload. Yousendit's nice and fast, but for instance, I downloaded Spinks's fourth-round knockout of Marvin Johnson a few weeks ago, and the download has already expired. I'd love to be able to share more of the downloads with you guys.

Yeah, but unless people are on a high-speed unlimited broadband comnnection the size of the files in MPEG2 makes it prohibitive.

A 15 round fight with a bit of pre and post is 2 gb+!

DIVX would get it down to a third of that but I took one look at that program (Gordian Knot) that converts MPEG2 to DIVX and gave up...

Michael Spinks
Dwight M. Qawi
Matthew Saad Muhammad
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad
Victor Galindez
Yaqui Lopez

Saad-Muhammad- Lopez was probably the most exciting fight during this era. however, there several other great fights. Saad-Johnson II was great while it lasted. You can watch almost any fight between 2 of the guys that were mentioned in earlier post and it would worthwhile to watch.
Another guy worth mentioning was Maury Sutherland, who usually fell a bit short against these guys but in a different era could have even won a title.
This era was just phenomenal in the light heavyweight division.

Victor Galindez
Michael Spinks
Dwight Qawi
Mustafa Muhammad
Matthew Saad Muhammad
Yaqui Lopez

Guys, Victor Galindez fought a 9 bout series with Juan Aguilar, a 6 bout series with Avenamar Peralta, a 4 bout series with Jorge Ahumada and also beat Bossman Jones, Eddie Owens, Ray Anderson and Jose Gonzalez and this was all BEFORE he won the title. Now, in his championship days he fights Len Hutchins, Richie Kates (twice), Yaqui Lopez (twice), Mike Rossman (twice), Pierre Fourie (twice), Mustafa Muhammad and a 5th bout with Jorge Ahumada. Even his non-titles were toougher than most beating Jesse Burnett and Dynamite Douglas. The other guys on this list don't even come close to the level of competition Galindez was fighting. On a head to head basis, Galindez already beat Lopez and Mustafa Muhammad, Saad Muhammad would be made to order for Galindez, Michael Spinks was never very mobile and would be against one of the more deceptively cagey fighters he's ever faced as well as getting his rib cage raked for 15 rounds. Galindez would of course have to be wary of the Spinks jab. Strangely, I feel Dwight Qawi would give him the best fight. Qawi's bobbing straight ahead style I feel would be effective early on against Galindez before Galindez shifts into the next gear and takes a close 15 rounder. Interesting thread.

Scartissue

1. Spinks
2. Galdinez (often underrated these days)
3. Qawi
4. Saad
5. Eddie M M
6. Johnson
7. Lopez

All fine fighters...

I think Qawi was a real force of nature and would have ruled a long time at the weight if not for Spinks.

Eddie M M seemed languid but wasn't there something about illness or weight problems when he fought Spinks and didn't Spinks then decline a rematch???