Virgil Hill vs Eddie Mustafa Muhammad

I remember wasting an hour watching that fight, neither man did anything

 

Eddie edges Virgil.

 

Had 'head case' Eddie not ballooned to fight Snipes, then went into a pressure cooker to make weight for the Spinks fight, Michael's career may not have been 'trumpeted' so loudly in retrospect. Although still a great fighter and ATG Lt. Heavy he would have lost to Eddie that day, even if the lackadaisical Eddie showed up. Despite entering the ring looking like a shriveled pear, Eddie clearly controlled the first half of the fight before 'wilting'. H**l the Assoc. Press scored the fight a draw for pete's sake.
My $0.02

 

Rt...that's Eddie for you.

 

The best version of Eddie beats Virgil far more convincingly than Tommy did.

 

Muhammad

 

Eddie decks him with a vicious bodyshot.

Eddie Mustafa Muhammad win over Marvin Johnson is better than any win on Virgil Hill's resume.

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A correctly weighted Eddie Mustafa Muhammad who is focused (not coasting through rounds) is a threat at 175lbs.
He could've beaten Galindez but lost on points due to low output and lost via points to Spinks while badly weight drained.

 

I’m more inclined to consider ‘prime’ Eddie to be an anomaly — he had a one-fight prime.

His basic characteristic was to come in undertrained and sleepwalk his way through fights and hope his skills carried him anyway. Which they often did, but just as often did not do so impressively.

Virgil was consistent. I think he jabs his way to a ‘don’t-wake-sleeping-giants’ decision.

 

Eddie was an always arrogant, often lazy SOB. He shot himself in the foot.

Yes, he screwed up the first Spinks fight by not being 100 percent physically.

Then, he gets a rematch and instead of training his a$$ off, he fails to make weight.

Instead of dropping a few pounds to get a second shot at the scales, he says the scales are rigged and refuses to make weight.

Then he writes a letter saying Michael Spinks is scared of him.



Lol

Hard to root for a guy like that.

Anyway, regardless of his condition, Hill is a bad matchup for him because Hill had good foot speed and movement. Eddie was slow a foot.

Eddie looked great against Marvin Johnson. Lottie Mwale and Jerry Martin, who were right in front of Eddie all night long.

Hill would use his movement and overall unorthidox style to peck and poke his way to a boring UD.

 

I happen to like Virgil Hill .. he was a classy guy and a decent fighter .. I know what I am about to say is absurdly overused and often inaccurately but not in this application .. Virgil Hill would not have been a champion or a top three contender in the golden age of the light heavyweight division, from Galindez/Conteh to Spinks. He would not have defeated , best to best, Conteh, Galindez, Saad, Mustafa, Marvin, Qwai or Spinks. I don't think he beats the best Yaqui Lopez or James Scott. Hill came around during the leanest years in the history of the light heavyweight division. He was a one handed lefty with a good jab, conditioning , chin and heart .. he had a nice run .. that said, it's all about level of opposition .. yes Mustafa was a bit of a head case and he under performed too often .. however in these match ups you have to go w best against best and the best Mustafa was stronger, far more skilled just as fast and a much bigger puncher.

 

Eddie was superb in back to back fights against Johnson and Jerry Martin and backed this up with a win over Ring top 10 rated Koopmans. That's a run of three consecutive wins over two top 6 rated contenders followed by a top tenner.

In his earlier years he fought Eugene Hart in his 11th fight and battered him. He looked awesome. He took Benny Briscoe (late prime) to a razor thin decision in his 15th fight. Not long after he edged Saad in a battle of up and comers. He boxed superbly to run prime Galindez very close and had his chances to win in his first title shot. He stopped a top tenner in Burnett immediately after the Galindez loss and cleaned up a couple of fringe contenders in Celestine and Mwale post Spinks.

I would agree he could get lazy and this cost him a few times but he did have some impressive outing beside Johnson over a long period of time.

 

Thanks for a great post, John. Eddie is in my top three favorite light-heavies. I wanted him to do so much better against Spinks (and thought he got robbed bad in his last title attempt).

I'll never forget cheering when Eddie knocked the crap out of Lotte Mwale.

 

This is a bout Eddie should win. and easily. How can you expect him to get in top shape for a guy with only a jab? His chin would have zero concerns with Hill's punches & I sure do not picture him doing anything other than showing up in crappy condition. Give him a Qawi or Old Pops or Saad & he gets himself in top shape. But not a light hitter that relies strictly on a jab.

With that in mind, Virgil turns him all night and jabs him to death. And Eddie sits and waits. Then, he waits some more. I think Eddie has 2 or possibly 3 good rounds the whole fight & Hill is not an easy guy to get out of there.

So as we see so often in the sport, the underperforming guy underperforms again against an opponent he thinks is not a threat.












h

 

Oh man Braxton vs Gregory...THAT would have been something. Look out for the Eddie uppercut.

 

So he had a couple of good outings. And others he sleepwalked through. You failed to mention James Scott using him as a heavy bag in the midst of that run. And that he often ended up on the short or long end of close decisions because of coasting.

Superbly skilled. Not superbly willed.