who is the MOST SHOT FIGHTER in the ring OF ALL TIME?

He looked all right between the bouts with Qawi in bombing out Pete McIntyre, but his boring eight round draw in Australia with Kevin Wagstaff in October 1989 was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen broadcast in a boxing ring.

Physically, Matt looked exactly the same, like a sculpture, but this time with fewer moves. It's one of the dullest bouts I've ever been transfixed by, because of the expectant wait for him to suddenly explode which never came. Kids show up on these boards today talking about how "ripped" somebody is, and it sometimes means nothing more than a genetic gift (which Mike Weaver has repeatedly emphasized). Boxing is not a bodybuilding competition, but athletic combat. (Both Ken Norton and Mike Weaver were sharply critical of weight training by the way, and Hercules was sidelined by injury once when he experimented with weights in the gym.)

 

Rahman vs Povetkin

 

Sam Lacy looks pretty bad right now...he's in RJJ territory.

 

Johnny Bumphus against Lloyd Honeyghan. He could barely make it into the ring and stand on his own.

 

Honey against breland sad to see.

 

Leonard against Camacho....

 

Jerry Quarry vs Ron Cramer was a crime!

Ali vs Holmes probably would not even be allowed in today's media environment.
It illustrates the dichotomy of an all time being allowed and encouraged to take a beating when his skills have disappeared because of his former greatness.

 

Norton against ****ey

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdNFJl7COY

Bingo

He was basically completely shot when he fought Eric Winbush in March 1983.

Somehow, he was able to fight for NINE more years.

Although it pains me to watch this, and I even asked the poster of this video to remove it from youtube, here is a TOTALLY Shot Matthew Saad Muhammad being humiliated by a prime Andrew Maynard in Oct. 1991. I remember watching this live on USA Tuesday Night Fights.

 

Which was weird because he was only 28 years old and survived Marlon Starling a few months earlier.

 

That's true. Physically, even when he was shot, Saad looked in shape and formidable. He never ballooned up like a lot of guys past their prime.

But the inordinate amount of clean shots he absorbed caught up with him all at once and totally. Rarely has a fighter gone from champion to totally shot as fast as Saad Muhammad. Basically, the accumulation of punches slowed his reflexes almost all at once. He could not longer react to punches or punch when he saw an opening. I wouldn't be surprised if he got ALS because of boxing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek3XHVj6uh4

That said, three years before he died, he did an interview (linked above), which is on youtube, with a Philadelphia sportscaster, in which he looked fit and trim, and could still speak somewhat intelligently. He was a bit punch drunk but not as bad as some guys. His memory was still pretty good. He didn't have dementia, or anything like that when the interview was conducted.

 

Leonard vs Camacho was horrible to watch

 

:deal