Qawi was clearly not as good as he was at 175, though he was still a force to be reckoned with. Had Holyfield not been there, what more could Qawi have accomplished? Could he have beaten De Leon and become "the man"? Could he have pounded out a few successful defenses before hitting a wall?
Yes, he'd have stayed at the top for another couple defenses. Deleon had nothing to hold him off with and Parkey was too uneven and skitchy a style to do much.
Qawi is VERY overrated H2H at cruiser and LHW. Several years ago someone made a thread Adamek vs Qawi and people were acting like it was the biggest mismatch they had ever heard in their life. Heck just a few months ago there was a thread where people were picking him to KO Hopkins at LHW
Not much. Age and lack of conditioning were becoming factors. A great fight in 86 would have been Qawi v. Bert Cooper. Dwight would have won because of better defense but I think it would have been a war. Dwight may have kept winning for awhile W/out Holyfield around but would have probably started stinking out the joint a La a faded Carlos Deleon. I could envision those two having a boring unification match around 1987. Holyfield did save the division but he did not face absolute prime Deleon or Qawi.
I could see him beating Hopkins at 175 with workrate. He may not stop Bernard, however. Dwight was a hungry beast for a few years at 175 lbs.
I think BHop figures him out and slows the pace to a crawl leaving Qawi frustrated and getting pot shotted with right hands
Well, like what, he couldn't jab and dance? Neither could Marciano,Frazier, Lamotta, Basilio, etc. Etc.......
I cant speak about Marciano Lamotta and Basillo but yes Frazier has a lot of the same limitations as Qawi it's more about pace he couldnt fight at a slow pace. And Bernard is the master of dictating pace.
He was a master of dictating pace against lesser-schooled guys who simply allowed him space. I wouldn't say he "denied" them anything. Qawi steamrolls him.
BHOP vs Qawi would be a very intriguing fight. I think the world of both but at lightheavyweight I would favor Qawi. Qawi aside from being tough as nails (like Hopkins) he was very good defensively and I think would push BHOP to fight at a pace that would be tough for him to sustain. As far as Qawi as a CW. We all saw what he did against a prime Holyfield. That alone shows the caliber of fighter he was. To bad the booze got the best of him at the end of his career.
Qawi is "lesser schooled" than all of BHops best opponents. Even at Qawi's pace BHop can still be competitive but if it slows down BHop dominates and Qawi will struggle to get it back to his pace
