[Phil. Daily News, 1979] Muhammad's Mission: Conteh Next

Interesting article on Matthew Saad Muhammad's time training at Ali's Deer Park facility (a young Tim Witherspoon was apparently his main sparring partner-who knew??), his career plans, and the importance of his Muslim faith.

Jay Greenberg, “Muhammad’s Mission: Conteh Next” Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 16, 1979

Deer Lake—Three weeks ago, the guy who owns the place dropped in for a visit. It was the same day ABC had picked to air Muhammad Ali’s retirement interview with Howard Cosell, so Ali watched himself make it official right there, where he had spent so many painful, dreary days paying his price for being The Greatest of All Time. Ali also brought a tape of his upcoming television dramatic effort with him, then relaxed, jabbed, jived, gave some advice and was shown a picture he had signed for a young boxer named Matthew Franklin several years ago.

“He looked at it,” said Matthew, “and said, ‘Ain’t this something. Damn, I didn’t know you’d be the light-heavyweight champion. And here standing next to the three-time heavyweight campion.’ It made me feel really good. […]

So Matthew rises from Ali’s bed at 6 a.m. every day to run four miles up and down the hills surrounding the camp.

Then Matthew chops wood, has his breakfast, rests for his daily 2:30 workout. During it, he skips rope, goes seven or eight rounds with Tim Witherspoon, one of four sparring partners he brought with him to Deer Lake on July 16. The other three, tired of the beatings, have gone home.

“Man, I’ve been rolling them out of here,” laughs Matthew. Then it’s to the bags, then the exercises, then dinner and a night of reading the Koran or talking with the visitors who are constantly dropping by one of boxing’s shrines. [...]

Matthew Saad Muhammad is in a hurry, but he will have his rest. He says he is leaving himself three to five years to accomplish what he calls his “mission,” one which he has apparently pared down. At the announcement of the Conteh fight, Matthew claimed he wanted to eventually become heavyweight champion, but three weeks later it is no longer part of his speech.

“Right now, it’s Conteh,” he said. “After beating him I must take care of Victor Galindez, if he still has the title. Now I understand he’s going to fight Johnson and the winner of that might fight (Mike) Rossman. I’ll have to wait and see. But whoever is there at the time is in trouble. I’ll lower the boom on him.

“If there’s not enough time to go after the heavyweight championship, then there’s not. My job is to put Allah’s name up front, to…what’s the right word?...propagate the faith. Doing my job as a professional fighter I must go on and be victorious. Still I am a Muslim, you must understand that and I must also be that.

“Bringing the two light-heavyweights titles together, that’s my goal. This is my soul purpose. I’m just saying as a Muslim I will stand forth and tell the people about the world community of Islam. I think I fight too hard anyway, that’s another reason why I don’t think a fighter like myself will last 10 years. That’s why I say three-to-five.” […]

His conversion to Islam, announced at the Johnson fight, was not, he says, that sudden, and the backlash from it has been minimal. “I’d been following the Muslim faith for a long time,” he said. “And I picked out the name more than a year ago. I hadn’t used it because I wanted to bring it out at the right moment. In order to bring it out, I wanted to be a champion.

“Matthew…I kept my first name because it meant the ‘chose one.’ It was a good name, given to me when I was an orphan. Saad means ‘bright future’ so that fits. Muhammad means ‘praiseworthy.’ And that’s good, too. A lot of people look up to me as champion.

“I wanted to really put the name out there, to show people the name means something. The name Muhammad will never die, it has been used by all religious through time. I chose it because all people should be recognized by their culture.

“The religion itself used to be very prejudiced. It’s not that anymore. At the time of Elijah Muhammad it was very racial. The Caucasian was saying ‘white is pure,’ Elijah Muhammad was saying in answer, ‘black is beautiful,’ that was his way of getting the faith out.

‘I explained it to my friends and I gave them the message. I had people come up to me and say, ‘What’s your name? Muhammad? I’m glad you’re one of the Muhammads because Muslims are supposed to be humble, disciplined, clean, do a lot of neat things.’”

“I grew up with some Caucasians, and as long as I respect them they will continue to respect me. They understand my faith. Muhammad Ali touched on a lot of things about the religion and he really opened the doors for us. He said a lot of things that one could understand. If they didn’t, he explained them, broke things down for them.”

Breaking down Conteh, and his suspect, twice-broken right hand, is the more immediate step. Muhammad announced Tuesday that he had the standard “secret” plan for handling Conteh’s considerable boxing skills, felt obligated to “warn” the press that the Briton is a dangerous butter, and emphasized that he feared only Allah and certainly no other boxer.

This time Matthew will probably have to box, which he did well before Johnson twice came into his life. Muhammad said that the only technical point of advice Ali gave him was about the jab.

“He’s always said the jab is the best weapon in boxing,” he said. “It’s the deterrent, and for the other hand you need a bomb. And my right hand is my bomb.”

Ali was impressed enough, not only to lend his camp, but to dedicate one of the few unnamed boulders around it in Matthew’s name. Think of it, Matthew Saad Muhammad’s name on a rock, across the way from Sonny Liston’s, near Jack Dempsey’s, gathering no moss next to Floyd Patterson’s.

“He’s a very good man, smart, a great champion, an I just thank him for letting me use his facility up there,” said Matthew…

 

I find the material in the article I posted more interesting but yeah, he went through a whole lot of life changes toward the tale end of his life. I read that he got an ID with his birth name, Max Loach.