Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vs Marvin Johnson

The weight loss affected him noticeably. Eddie gassed midway thru and it was from the weight loss. He had no history of poor stamina and it wasn't a fast paced fight.

Two things beat Eddie that night - the weight loss and the woefully swollen left eye which was very likely from an elbow or thumb from memory. The eye blew up around the time he started to tire. He never saw the booming right that dropped him as by that stage the eye was shut. Eddie had to be extremely careful as Spinks right hand was akin to a nuclear missile (much like Eddie's own right hand) and he was struggling to see it.

For the first handful of rounds Eddie was comprehensively outboxing Spinks before fatigue and the eye came into play. Spinks was always going to come on late but a fit and unmarked Mustafa would have handled him imo.

 

I completely agree .. at the time he was known as the most talented guy who under fought .. I still don't know how he lost to Galindez or Scott .. I don't know how he did not come back after the los to Spinks and at least have a monster rematch .. he just didn't have that fire on scale to match his talent.

Look how terrific he still looked in 82 fighting Mwale ..

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He's a natural and look at that power. He got too hesitant against the excellent Galindez and took it too easy at a time when he needed to accelerate from memory. I think it was still pretty close tho from memory.

 

Very, very high raise for Eddie around here, that I can't ever recall quite seeing before. I guess his stock has risen in the past several years. Even the instantly lovable and unforgettable "Miracle" Matthew doesn't get that kind of credit on these boards, despite plenty of excellent performances against some of the same fighters, like Mwale, whom Matthew also nearly killed with a single punch.

 

You guys underrate Spinks' boxing ability. Also, if Eddie had stayed at middleweight, could he have handled Hagler and Valdez?

 

Eddie underachieved. No excuse for blowing a chance at a rematch with Spinks. He was more talented and better schooled than Saad but lacked certain intangibles. Saad overachieved.

 

How good was Lotte anyway? A fighter I've never been able to get a good grip on.

A nice looking record on paper but he seemed to lose every time he seriously stepped up and out of his comfort zone...

 

I always thought with Eddie, he needed to be James Scott. Doing the prison sentence and just spending his time training. Zero distractions and becoming a better student of the game. Constantly training. He had the physical tools. That's really what James Scott brought to the table was that terrific conditioning. Terrific conditioning is not a term associated with EMM.

Man, was that a bad fight for him. I'm sure Eddie thought he'd go in there and clip the guy and it'd be over.

And I think Eddie took that shot at Snipes because of the talk of a Holmes fight. There's a decision bout for you and EMM is not going to win many rounds when the other guy is moving laterally throwing a ton of jabs.

 

He did decision Marvin Johnson in 1978, although I have heard it was a questionable verdict.

He was a legitimate top 10 contender. He just happened to run into two exceptional fighters in Saad and Mustafa.