I recently watched this fight and the whole thing was rather strange. 1st off, just the visual of the short, squat Qawi matched against the much taller Foreman was almost comical. I was surprised at how effective Qawi was at times. Despite the disparity in height and reach, he was able to tag George pretty often with his punches, leaving a welt on George's eye. Despite the punches, George was never hurt and seemed to be pretty casual about the whole thing, often pawing and pushing his opponent, treating it almost like a sparring session. At times, the match was comical, with Qawi, occasionally turning his back and at one time, he feinted dropping after a Foreman punch. When George turned away as if to go to a neutral corner, Qawi leaped up and caught him with some punches. Later, Dwight simply dropped to the canvas without being punched as if seeking a respite. At the end, Qawi did his own version of No Mas and simply turned away and walked to his corner, signaling an end to the fight. I'm curious about everybody else's opinion on this fight. I'm surprised Qawi would have the guts to go up against such a fearsome puncher. Did he do it just for the money?
It was a strange and suspicious fight. Even an older blown-up Qawi was a formidable fighter. If they both would have fought with conviction it would have been a very interesting fight.
I agree it looked a little strange as George viewed Qawi as absolutely no threat , and he was no threat at all to him. I thought Foreman could have opened up and got him outta there earlier if he had wanted to. Looked like he carried him for a few rounds
People love to hold this up as an example of a smaller fighter doing well against a behemoth... but George looked in control of every minute of that fight. It was strictly another day at the office for him, and he beat down Qawi in methodical fashion.
I recall Foreman came in at 235 or thereabouts, the lightest he ever was in his second career. After the fight he said he felt drained at the weight and weighed in at 250+ for the rest of his career from memory.
Those thudding shots from Foreman were starting to get to Qawi and Qawi was getting real tired. I think he figured he was going to end up KOd or stopped, so he quit and saved himself the damage.
At a pitiful 235 lbs, lightest for his second career, Foreman was clearly undernourished and weakened. He was also very so slow, as he always had been since his comeback. For a few rounds it was just like a skilled, fast hitting and evasive fat kid landing shots on an adult on Valium without inflicting real damage. Eventually the fast tiring fat kid copped a few hard cuffs from the slightly miffed adult and didn’t want to play anymore. It was also just George’s 8th fight back in if that counts for anything.
You… (and everyone) might find this interesting. Qawi’s perspective on the bout. Question: What are your standout memories from the Foreman fight? Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “First of all, I took him on two-and-a-half weeks notice. Bob Arum was bringing George back. Getting him ready for Mike (Tyson) at the time. So I guess I was short, built like Mike, movement, when they called with $50,000, I took it.” Question: Were you in shape for that fight? Qawi: “Not really. Not really. I was overweight, embarrassed. I had to lose the weight, as a matter of fact, I went on a liquid diet to lose the weight. I was so embarrassed, to get in the ring looking like that. I just had to lose the weight real quick. I was depressed when they called me. I wasn’t ready to go back in the ring real quick. So when they called me I was in the middle of everything, not sure what to do.” Question: Did you have any success vs. Foreman? Qawi: “Yeah for the first four rounds I thought I had him going. I thought I was winning. The judges had it 4-3. I thought I had more rounds.” Question: What punch combinations/tactics were successful against him? Qawi: “Well, the right hand. The lead right hand kept hitting him. I would roll out on him. When he stuck the hand out to lean on you, I let him touch me and I rolled out. The hand is still out there and I’d get on the side of him and I’d turn and I hit him. Because when you’re going like that he’s not going to jump back. He’d just turn and I hit him. I just got tired. If I had more energy and I was more courageous and more imaginative, and I think he was looking for that first punch, he was respectful of my punch, the rest of the fight. That’s the strategy. When they’re in with a puncher like that, he thinks I’m wild, so he’s not so bold.” Question: How do you think Tyson would have done with Foreman if they would have fought back then? Qawi: “If Mike is on top of his game it would have been a helluva fight. I just watched Foreman fight Ron Lyle, they went down six, seven times. So Foreman could take a punch. I could see Mike hitting him. It could be one of those fights you don’t even want to think about. Seriously. That would be a lot of firepower.” Question: What did Foreman’s power feel like? Qawi: “It wasn’t sharp. It was a thump. Thumping. He didn’t hit me with that much clean. But it was like, heavy. Heavy. You have the sharp punch, then you have the thumping punch. It was mostly like that. That’s how he came back. He was smart coming back. He deserved the win and the accolades he got. So I did good with him.”
Strange fight; strage knockout. But credit should be given to Qavi for boxing at that height in the heavyweight division, especially against Foreman.
