Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
I Boxed A Legend: Dwight Muhammad Qawi Recalls Two Fights With Matthew Saad Muhammad
By Scoop Malinowski
“People ask me the question about what was your toughest fight? When I fought Holyfield the first time (1986) there was a big age difference (Dwight was 33). My brother always told me, ‘If you were younger no way he could beat you.’ I say, ‘You’re right.’ I woulda dug down. Me and Saad were peaking when we fought (1981). He was peaking. We both were at a good age. I mean, he still had it. You can see that it was a war. And that was a tough fight. He hit me a couple times, I was like…he hit me one time and the floor went to the ceiling. Everything turned upside down.”
“I had never been hurt like that before. It was a right hand I believe. That was my toughest fight – the first Saad fight.”
Question: Why were you able to be successful against him? Why were you able to beat him?
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “What happened was – I had smart trainers, both of them – Wesley Mouzon and Quenzell McCall were very strategic. And he had me – he put certain people in front of me. And with Saad he had me coming in on angles. Stay to his side a lot. You don’t see it but that’s how I beat him. He would lay straight up and wait and wait. Till you punch yourself out. But I’d be on the side, I’d step side to side, so when I finished punching him, he couldn’t find me. I wasn’t right in front of him. He had to turn to me. So when he turned to me I wasn’t in front. So that was one of my strategies. I don’t want to give too many more strategies. I might make a comeback [smiles]. Just kidding.”
“But it was that kind of strategy, so I could get in on him. Like when we go on the ropes, when I was on the ropes, I did a lot of combinations. We worked on those combinations on the pads, four or five fights before him. And I was right on him. Then I would hit him, I would get on angle to hit him with that. I wasn’t right in front where he could just come at me like he normally do. He could close his eyes and hit you right in front of him. But I worked on that, I studied that and I did it. I perfected it.”
Question: When did you realize in the fight that you would win? That you saw ‘defeat’ in his eyes or body language?
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “Well, it wasn’t until in the 10th or 11th round, the round I knocked him out in, 9th or 10th (10th round). He was still coming back. He was still dangerous. I didn’t know for sure. I was confident in the 8th or 9th but I wasn’t going back to the stool saying, he’s a piece of cake. No way. But I knew that in the 9th, just before the last round, I said to my corner, ‘I’m gonna take him.’ And I knew then, I saw something, I knew that he was…I mean, he wasn’t…he was getting beat down. For the first time he was getting beat down. I remember when he went down it was from the barrage of punches not the one heavy big bomb, but the pressure. He just was down. He got back up. That’s the thing, I kept the pressure, pressure.”
Question: In the rematch eight months later you must have been very confident with the tactics you had, did anything unexpected happen? Any surprises?
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “It was just me. He tried. He came out. I trained hard for that fight. I had just won the title so I was just peaking. When you win the title the first time you become a different person. And I trained hard and I just had his number. I wasn’t gonna let him get in the fight. Not only with him, with everybody, Jerry Martin, I blew everybody out. In ’82 I blew everybody out. I was like peaking, for real.”
Scoop: You were like a human tank.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “Not only that, I was swift and my combinations were on. Everything was right on. And you get such confidence when you win the title. And you know what you know.”
Scoop: You’re beating the best.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “That’s when the confidence showed up, in the second fight.”
Question: Ever talk with Matthew or touch base, years later?
Dwight Muhamamd Qawi: “Yeah, we’re all friends. After that fight I kissed him on the cheek. We’re brothers in faith. I loved him as a person. He’s a nice guy. He’s a very nice guy. Eventhough he’s old and things happened in his life, he is so graceful. That man, every time I see him, I praise God. He’s always smiling. I envy that. He’s always smiling, no matter what his condition. That’s special, man. I’m telling you, that’s special. I mean, people can have all they want and they’re still mean and miserable. I would love to see his condition change and help to change his condition. I pray for him. I pray to God to help him because he’s such a good person. After what happened to him. I never seen him mean. Even after our fight.”
Scoop: He has a beautiful heart and soul.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi: “He does. And sometimes I regret. Our fights. I do. I wish I had Spinks. Not that I have anything against him.”
Qawi later lost a 15-round unification bout with Michael Spinks and then won the WBA Cruiserweight title in 1985 vs. Piet Crous, before losing that title in 1986 by split decision to Evander Holyfield. Qawi later campaigned as a heavyweight, before retiring from boxing in 1998 with a final ring record of 41-11-1 (25 KO’s). Qawi is a unique legend of the ring because he turned professional at age 25 in 1978 after watching Mike Rossman, then a world champion, box on TV while in prison. Qawi, then known as Dwight Braxton, thought to himself: “I can beat both of these guys!” After leaving prison and turning pro, Qawi later did beat Rossman. Remarkably, he won the WBC Light Heavyweight title just three years after turning pro.
