I was always impressed by the way he came forward and slipped shots with relative ease. He obviously knew distances and angles well, and had a sense what punch would come next. Interestingly, I thought Eddie Davis had a less difficult time tagging him than greats like Michael Spinks and Evander Holyfield (first fight) did. What's your overall opinion of his defensive abilities?
he's a slickster but the kind the general forum would say "you're saying that b/c he is black" his upperbody movement is as smooth as it gets imo.
Qawi was exceptionally well-schooled in his style. About as good as a fighter of his physical attributes could be. Very good use of the jab for a fighter of his size, too, the way he'd sneak it underneath the opponents. His defensive skills are no exception. Excellent head/upper-body movement, always within the confines of his style and rarely out of position to counter. Spinks wasn't landing many power shots, but he controlled Qawi very well with the jab I thought. I think Qawi just went into killer mode too soon against Davis when he hurt him early on, and as a result was tagged by a lot of shots he probably wouldn't have been were he a bit more poised. He also seemed to have gotten slightly winded in the middle rounds after his early barrage.
He gave you the right hand and took it away. He looked wide open for them and would slip or deflect them and counter. What Spinks did was the proper way to penetrate that defense and never throw those right leads. It was a trap that guys fell for and Qawi was a great counterpuncher.
Early on, he developed the habit of breathing through his mouth, a trait far too deeply ingrained to be corrected later. So why did he never wind up with a broken jaw against all the punchers, ATGs and other champions he fought? Flash Gordon compared his defensive skills favorably to those of Napoles, as well as lauding his ring cutting efficacy, always keeping his lead foot between his opponent's feet. I thought he had the best counter jab of his era. Ike's 71 inch reach was quite long for a man of his height, and he may well have been the most adept of his time at turning lack of height into an asset. Manager Wesley Mouzon and trainer Quenzell McCall said he actually had to learn to fight inside, while boxing at range came naturally to him. Interestingly, Dwight's height and reach were both exactly one inch less than Langford's. Yet we've all seen him steal some rounds from the lightest Foreman of George's second career. Nobody else took both Michael Spinks and Holyfield the championship distance, and he wasn't in survival mode either for his first two defeats, trying to spring the win all the way. Michael was at his best, and Holyfield I is considered on of the final great bouts over the championship distance. Nine of Qawi's 11 defeats came after McCall's death in 1985.
Seeing this little compact Guy Outab bigger opponnets was a clue to his keen sense of timing and space perception ...up close it was a case of Dip..Slip...and RIP - (RIP was perhaps appropriate the way he filletted big dangerous guys like Jerry Bull Martin.) The Camden Buzzsaw was often more like Papa Sawmill !