Does anyone remember the Famous "This is It" card by MAPS( Muhammad Ali Pro Sports). Does anyone remember what were the matchups & Who would have won these fights on this Supercard.
I know one of the bouts was. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad . Vs. Matthew Saad Mohammad. When both were at thier peak. Eddie had great skills, but Saad had tremendous heart & pulled fights out, time & time again. I would have to go with Saad in a late round stoppage.
I remember it being talked about plenty, and if my memory hasn't failed me, some of the other matchups (along with Eddie vs. Saad) were Hearns/Benitez, Cooney/Norton, and, I think, Gomez/Ayala. Possibly one other major bout that I'm not remembering. Of course the FBI's investigation into MAPS and it's chairman, Harold Smith (who went on the run, I believe), derailed it all with only a couple of weeks before the card was to take place, which was in early 1981.
I think that one was planned when the card was in the initial phases of scheduling, although I seem to be remembering that it was scratched well in advance for some reason and wouldn't have been a part of the card had it taken place. The one other one that I was thinking to be all set to go and which came to mind in my previous post was a possible Pryor/Mamby unification fight at 140, but didn't Pryor get put on the shelf after getting shot sometime that winter?
Can a historian fill me in on what this was? Either it was before my time or I missed a memo. Never heard of this before, but it sounds like dreamland!
In about 1981 this was supposed to be a supercard, by a new promotion company, MAPS(Muhammad Ali Pro Sports). But before the card was to come off. There was an investigation & the Chairman was indicted(Harold Ross Smith). Which lead to inverstigations into Boxing promotional practices. But the proposed card had about five or six great superfights for that time. One I know was a unification match between Ed. Mustafa Muhammed-Matt Saad Mohammad, I believe, Jeff Chandler-Lupe Pintor, Another involved Wilfredo Gomez(Sanchez)?, Or Sanchez-Pedroza?, But I mean ALL the fights were great.
I think I had set my money aside to buy the Closed Circuit ticket when it was canceled. The Pryor story about getting shot I vaguely remember. Everyone wanted to see Saad vs Eddie, but even that was controversy about 2 Muslims fighting each other....whatever that means by today's standards.
WOW! What an ambitious card! Not something I've heard of before. Thanks for the history lesson! Cant see anything like that happening any time soon
I just found the following this morning; http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124181/1/index.htm Page 4 indicates that the original card was Cooney/Norton, Eddie/Saad, Hearns/Benitez, Gomez/Ayala, and Arguello/Kenty, which was a bout that was cancelled in January of that year.