Just watched Holyfield Qawi I.. I have been underrating qawi

yeah, quite possible, but even so i think a series of competitive great fights with Spinks(and some wins against the other up and coming light heavies) would have been better for his legacy than what he did do, even though the first Holyfield fight is rightfully a classic.

 

The most impressive thing about Qawi is that he had no amateur experience.

 

He was ferocious and clever at the same time, a deadly combination. He had a relatively short career due to his stint in prison but he was as tough as they come. I see him beating all of the light heavies today and am convinced he would have handled any version of Hopkins.

 

I was at this fight. Best fight I've ever seen live, no question.

 

Braxton hit his absolute peak in '82 with the easy destructions of Jerry Martin and the second Saad Muhammad fight. He was a finely honed fighting machine. His conditioning waned a bit against Eddie Davis and Spinks. In early '84 he was scheduled to fight Spinks in a rematch but pulled out citing a shoulder injury. He later said conditioning was a factor and he couldn't get down to 175 lbs. Then, he moved up to Cruiserweight. The first Holyfield fight was great but that wasn't prime Braxton (Qawi) especially conditioning wise. He couldn't quite keep up with Holyfield's pace.

Qawi hit the scene as a lightheavyweight contender at exactly the right time for him to shine. Saad was starting to fade, Mustafa wasn't in prime condition and Sprinks was the only real obstacle for Qawi. If Qawi, and Spinks for that matter, had arrived two or three years earlier, they would have faced sterner opposition.

 

Here is Qwai's take copy and pasted from the book The Bite Fight



With Holyfield I didn’t expect him to go the distance with the pace I was going to set for him by pressing him,” Qawi said. “I knew the pressure should have broken him down. I watched him spar about six months before the fight and he couldn’t go six rounds without breathing hard.
“And then he comes back a few months later and goes the distance like that. I was surprised by that. I knew he was faster and younger. But I figured I’d hit him in the body and stay in his face and press him, press him, press him.
“In the fifth round it was working as planned. He was getting tired and I was taking his power away and then all of a sudden, he got a second wind. He got a burst of energy and was more energetic in the second half of the fight than he was in the first. That still puzzles me today.”
Qawi has no real proof, only what his gut tells him. “I just think he got something extra from somewhere,” Qawi said. “Maybe he drank something and had a black bottle in the corner. I’m an athlete. I’ve been around. I know you can get a second wind. But you don’t get a second wind like that. So I’m always going to be very suspicious of that fight.”

He kept pulling me by my head, pulling me down, trying to keep me off-balance,” Qawi said. “No one said nothing. But they kept interrupting me and breaking up my fight. I was very disturbed by how the referee would distract me. They never once reprimanded him for pulling my head and throwing me off.”

 

Qawi still can't admit that he was beaten by the better man, his reasoning is pure fantasy.

 

Nah, Holyfield was a greatly improved young fighter and hit a lot harder than he had in the first fight.

 

I don't think he was in real trouble and could definitely have gotten up. He certainly gave up IMO.

 

You know Holyfield got 1 million for 2nd fight while Qawi got only 75,000

 

Looked like he got hit right on the chin to me.

 

Qwai was short. 5'5 1/2 " tall. IMO, he shows you how Sam Langford ( who hit even harder I think ) could be successful vs. larger men. Langford was about an inch taller, but had 3 more inches in reach.