Thoughts on Dwight Muhammad Qawi

Most (if not every) aggressive swarmer hates a mover. There's no secret kryptonite there.

I don't think bringing up Johnny Davis is emblematic of anything; that was literally within the first few fights of his career. Too early to tell anything from that.

 

Exactly.

Qawi's actual prime was pretty brief, but in that prime the only man to beat him was Spinks. And you can make a strong argument for Spinks being the best lightheavyweight of all time, so there's no shame in that.

Virgil Hill never beat anybody CLOSE to Qawi's caliber.

 

Beat ali, come on folks!!

 

Great fighter. One of the toughest light heavies I've ever seen. An absolute h2h beast that gives any light heavy in history a rough, tough battle.

 

It's not fair to say that Saad Muhammad is the only name on the resume. He earned his title shot. He beat several contenders including Jerry Martin, James Scott, and Mike Rossman. Deserved a second shot at Michael Spinks. Kicked brother Leon's ass. Lost some questionable decisions to Ocasio and Holyfield. He beat Saad Muhammad twice and essentially ENDED him. Saad had quite a reign of terror going until he might Dwight. I think Qawi's an ATG.

 

I ****ing love this post:good

 

The Camden Buzzsaw was a throttling machine at that height and that compact weight body of his and he was all ova you and ready to smash you against the ropes and take you out of there in a matter of seconds. You gat to see Matthew faced all kind of adversity in Marvin Johnson, Yaqui Lopez and John Conteh but he couldn't remain standing against this short large guy from New Jersey. Of course, Michael Spinks was in a roll, he dismantled Eddie Mustafa Muhammad who had Marvin Johnson for the WBA title and then he easily played the circling, boxing patient game on the move against the brawler to became undisputed easily already under Butch Lewis. Out of those 4 or something defenses of the WBC title, nothing special to be said but it was when the junior heavyweights appeared that he became notorious again against Leon Spinks, against Nate Miller, but specially in those first 15 gruelling rds in the Omni Atlanta Georgia against a superior top conditioned athlete in Evander Holyfield who started to unify the Cruiserweight Division right there. Of course he made short work of Dwight Braxton or Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the rematch so Evander did well to advance to an illustrous career in the 200 plus pounds division and Dwight did not.

 

We tend to respect Qawi more because he was so often the smaller man and outboxed many opponents despite it.

Some tall fighters can just hang back, relax, and deal with what's coming. Qawi could never do that, he always had to make something happen.

 

ONe thing with Qawi that doesn't seem to get mentioned much is his inconsistent mentality and dedication in the ring.

He ate himself out of 175 in a Fighting Harada like fashion, when it was a weight he should never have left and the one he was a really top fighter at.

And his effort in the ring was inconsistent when someone was giving him a tough time.He was a bit of a frontrunner imo.

The fight against Davis where he should have had him out early, but got frustrated and sloppier when Davis showed real resilience and heart.

The slowing down of his pressure and inability to cut off the ring after eating some hard punches from Spinks( who was a good but never great mover) in a fight where he often looked to me like he was doing just enough to "make a good show" rather than really trying to win.No great shame to be intimidated or put into a shell by Spinks power of course, but the way some are talking you would think he was a 175 Frazier or Armstrong in the fearlessness department, which was not really the case.

Absolutely pathetic performance against Holyfield 2nd time around where he more or less just quit.Clearly just there for the payday after putting on a great effort first time around.Once was enough, i guess.

This isn't to say i don't agree with a lot of the praise for Dwight here.Most of it is on point, but i do think his lack of versatility, range and lack of that real consistent "do or die" mentality that the really great pressure fighters and swarmers all have would do him in against the better boxer-punchers or more frustrating stylists in the division's history.

I don't think someone with little power or offensive commitment like Hill would beat him, but i wouldn't imagine it would be at all an easy fight for him either.

Anyone that stands and trades for long periods, or tries to bring pressure would be in for a long night though.

 

I remember him coming up shared a SD win and SD loss with Johnny Davis in early stages of their careers. I remember the big win KO 7 over Mike Rossman and then going into Rahway state prison and beating James Scott after Jerry Martin beat Scott. Dwight then beat Bull Martin and then Matthew Saad Muhammad for the title. He gave Spinks a good battle and then a close battle with a young Evander and he stopped Leon Spinks. Never embarrassed himself, and even landed quite often with his right hand on the Old George Foreman but Dwight was also no kid at this time and at 5'7 not a bad career against much taller men