Dwight Muhammad Qawi (Saad fights) vs Eddie Mustafa Muhammad (Marvin Johnson fight)

Qawi wins. Possibly by late stoppage.

 

I'd still give the edge to Qawi on the strength of his superior infighting technique + how dominant he was in their actual fights.

** NVm this, I misread the title as Qawi vs. Saad Muhammad.

 

Muhammad wanted to fight only in bursts and his workrate wasn’t enough to offset Qawi’s. Qawi eats him up, I think. I have him by decision, a wide one.

 

I think Qawi gets a bit overestimated sometimes because of the fights against a rapidly declining Saad, who you could see in fights like Murray Sutherland was a near-spent force

Not that he wasn't a gifted fighter with some unique physical/technical traits such as his ability to get under and counter long right-hands. He was a lovely slip and counter fighter from the waist up with the capability to be a monster against certain styles, like less technical, wider-punching brawlers (Scott, Martin), or upright 1-2 technicians without strong reflexes that were there to be hit (which would describe the Saad he fought, or Mike Rossman), he can do the dip, slip and rip thing all day there and look a monster.

But he had his flaws too - being almost entirely one-dimensional, t-rex armed and of average of hand/foot speed and I always thought he was one of the more suspect mentally of the more notable 74-84 light-heavies; a bit of a great on-top fighter who could be frustrated and discouraged. Not some clear number two to Spinks, but instead someone you could argue could beat most of the bigger names of the era/lose to most of them at their best, that fits in well but with less meat on his 175 record than most.

He was less impressive, though still very good against Eddie Davis, a pretty good technician in a poor man's Richie Kates sort of mold who didn't have a lot of firepower and gave up a lot of his advantage in mobility in that fight after getting badly hurt early, but then stood in well for quite a long time. Qawi should have won that fight early, but ended up taking a good amount of punches and having to grind to a later knockout.

Then Dwight faced a prime combination of mobility, intelligence, skill and power for the first time in Spinks and came undone when faced with someone who used his height/reach advantage smartly, punchpicked intelligently (keeping the right hand economical) and moved quite well. Now Spinks went on to be a great, it's no shame to come undone against him, but the issues I have with Dwight's performance is he got notably worse as the fight went on, being blatantly discouraged by facing someone defensively responsible, hard-hitting, and with the ability to keep turning him. He was a fighter that cut the ring off well technically when on top of fights, but here he looked like he was on tracks.

An EMM with his well documented atrocious preperation actually did better against Spinks until his eye closed after getting dropped, that fight still had some intrigue at that point, whereas Qawi had already gone into a 2nd gear shell by the same point and never looked like turning it around.

Of course, after the Spinks loss, Qawi seemed discouraged and diminished mentally already, fleeing the division to a frankly unsuited cruiserweight he had no business being at, and looking out of shape from then on. A last hurrah against raw young prospect Holyfield, which is the sort of fight that showed Qawi's potential in a trading fight when he was up for it, just as the second showed the re-emergence of the on-top ex-con bully mentality that he had. Once he knew the bigger, more athletic young fighter was better than him in a head-on confrontation, he wanted little to do with it.

EMM had his own well documented mentality issues that don't need to be elaborated on, but I look at his 175 record and see more depth of good quality prime opponents taken on, of more varying styles. This due to coming along earlier and being truly a part of that deep era from the start, whereas Qawi was really a transitional era guy like Spinks, with both entering the fray as many others were looking shopworn. To my eye he has the better overall skills than Qawi, is a more truly versatile fighter (in theory, not always in practice of course), and one with the sort of big power, defensive skill and offensive variety/intelligence that would be well capable of putting Dwight's pressure and output into 2nd gear eventually. He's also got an excellent chin.

It's a fight between two unreliable characters, EMM more so, yet also being the one who can really shackle and break the other if he turns up in top form. I think this probably depends on timing of the fight and if they had a series it might be the sort that throws up some widely variable results...I can easily see a flat EMM getting outhustled widely, lying on the ropes or just not throwing enough, only to come back and take a clear decision or even force some sort of stoppage after taking the play away from Dwight with those heavy left hook counters.

Just as many probably won't have faith in Eddie's workrate/commitment, I don't have much in Qawi's ability to overcome very good punching boxer-punchers that can control the ring and restrain the right hand smartly. Spinks didn't beat him with Holy'ish workrate and punching in bunches after all. He put fear into him with his own punchpicking and power, and frustration via better mobility.

I think a medium/relatively low output sort of fighter is quite suited to Qawi compared to someone throwing punches for the sake of activity, as long as they have sufficient power and skill. Dwight's not a fast-footed whirlwind that you really need to throw a high amount against to stop being constantly mauled, he's a technical-minded aggressive counterpuncher that shuffled in and feasted on sloppy mistakes.

 

Dwight Muhammad Qawi by decision Eddie Mustafa Muhammad was talented but too lazy with his output in fights. Qawi would simply be too busy just like James Scott was when he fought Muhammad.

I don't see a stoppage because both men are extremely durable.

 

i've always wondered if Eddie let the unusual prison atmosphere get to him in that fight and bottled it. His workrate issues weren't usually anywhere near that bad at the time, but in this he was positively Laporte vs Gomez'ish. Not simply a case of the other fighter looking too busy in their style, but of one fighter positively refusing to engage and going into a complete shell.

 

Excellent post, though I disagree. Qawi lost a close decision to an absolute great in Spinks, so I don’t know that “undone” really accurately describes his fate in that encounter. He got out pointed in a masterful performance by Spinks.

Not that you were necessarily using that fight as a sign Mustafa would beat him (you weren’t), but I just see this as a styles thing more than anything. Qawi is going to crowd him and take the play away. The way to beat Qawi, as hinted at before, was movement. That’s something Mustafa didn’t employ.

 

There is no way that fight vs Spinks was even remotely close. At no point in time did anyone ever think Spinks was going to lose that bout and most people at the time were angry because they thought it was going to be an exciting bout.
The thing that everyone overlooked in that fight and that some boxing experts point out correctly was Spinks landed a crunching right-hand in the first round that greatly impacted how Qwai fought in that bout.

 

What an incredible post. I think Eddie was the most talented but he just could never really put it together.
At his best n peak form I think he would be too much for Qwai but the problem is you never know which Eddie would show up.
And people thinking Qwai would have his way with Eddie on the inside lets also take into account a motivated and prime Eddie was a vicious body puncher when he wanted to be.

 

I disagree. Spinks won a fairly close (though clear) decision to me.

 

Do you remember how you scored it?

 

I forget. I’ll look in the scorecards thread.

 

I never posted a scorecard, but noted some years ago that I had scored it 144-140 Spinks. Which probably translates to 9-5-1 in rounds, giving Qawi a 10-8 in round 8.

 

If the right Eddie shows up, Qawi gets stopped in 7.

Otherwise, Qawi by UD.