Eddie Mustafa Muham-
mad said it himself:
His recent career can be
summarized in only two
words: inactivity and con-
troversy. The 32-year-old
former WBA light heavy-
weight champion, a veteran
and one of the few world-
class boxers to combine de-
fense and boxing skills with
documented kayo power,
44-6-1 (35), lost his title to
Michael Spinks in 1981 and
has fought only six times
since. There have been no
further losses. In fact, four of Eddie's wins have been
against top-20 competition, including Pablo Ramos, Lottie
Mwale, Jerry Celestine, and Tyrone Booze. But no one
would call Eddie Mustafa Muhammad a hot fighter. The
nadir was struck in July 1983, when he scaled over the
division limit before a scheduled Washington, D.C., title
fight rematch with Spinks. Claiming that the scales had
been rigged, Eddie refused to lose the extra weight. The
bout was switched to a 10-round non-title contest, but
Spinks chose to pull out later that day and, during a wild
evening press conference, the police were called in to quiet
the chaotic scene.
Eddie was suspended, and he remained inactive for
almost a year. He came back to the ring with a one-round
stoppage of Andy Russell in the Cayman Islands in May
1984. After that bout, he bloated to 212 pounds and had
to shed 32 pounds to make the weight for his United
States return, a New York City-I0 rounder against Booze
in February. Still insisting he can make light heavyweight,
Eddie scaled 180 and won a unanimous 10-round verdict.
But not, of course, without some controversy and excite-
ment along the way.
***
THE MORNING
The weigh-in is scheduled for 10 a,m, at the New York
State Athletic Commission offices in downtown Manhattan.
Later that night, at the Garden's bargain basement
building, the Felt Forum, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad will
fight Tyrone Booze. Several fight figures and commion-
ers rill the seventh-floor
lobby and the room that
holds the official scale.
Madison Square Garden
matchmaker Harold Wes-
ton Jr. waits patiently, as
does Booze and his manag-
er, the colorful F. Mac
Buckley. The clock keeps
ticking. It is 10:30, and Ed-
die Mustafa Muhammad
has still not arrived.
"With Eddie you know it will always be interesting," says Weston.
Eddie appears with man-
ager-attorney Doug Thomas and a small entourage at
10:40 a.m. He looks tired and drawn, and remains
speechless. One wonders if he was telling the truth two
days before, when he said he weighed 176, "no prob-
lem." The contract for the bout is 179 pounds, give or
take a pound. In other words, Eddie can weigh as much
as 180, but not an ounce more.
Whispers begin, but the subject is not Eddie's weight.
Word quickly spreads: There are four sheriffs and a
lawyer at the weigh-in, and they aren't just interested
spectators. They have handcuffs with them. And they've
come to get Eddie Mustafa Muhammad.
After a 20-minute delay that only adds to the drama,
Eddie strips down to his briefs and eyes that familiar
nemesis, the scale. A semicircle of onlookers forms and
commissioner Petey D'Ella calls for more space. At 11
a.m., Eddie steps up and, standing on his toes, weighs in.
There is an unattractive roll of flesh around his midsec-
tion. "One-eighty-one," D'Ella reports after balancing the
scale. Eddie will have to reduce one more pound.
"We have a Detecto scale at Eddie's, it must've been
off a couple of ounces," says Thomas.
Unemotional and seemingly unaffected by the sur-
roundings, Booze weighs in immediately after. "One-sev-
enty-nine-and-a-halt," D'Ella announces. Booze smiles
and steps down.
“We gonna wipe that smile off your face,” one of
Eddie's followers threatens the Connecticut light-heavyweight.
"Hey, I'm from the ghetto, too,"
Booze responds calmly. "You can't
pull that on me."
Meanwhile, Buckley huddles with
Doug Thomas and tells him to "just
have Eddie move around a little bit."
Buckley is willing to waive the con-
tracted weight limit if Eddie shadow-
boxes for 10 or 15 minutes. Eddie
heads out of the room and across the
hallway to the bathroom. His entou-
rage follows, as do the sheriffs. One of
the sheriffs asks deputy commissioner
Marvin Kohn if there is an escape-
window in the bathroom. Kohn says
there is, but adds that it's a long way
down.
At 11:13 a.m., Eddie reenters the
room and weighs in at 180. "I'll take
it," he says. Buckley is satisfied. Eddie
sits down on a metal chair and quickly
gulps down three cups of chicken soup
served from a thermos by one of his
supporters. "I want to walk around a
little bit," he says, and he and his
people leave the room, with the sher-
iffs and lawyer alongside.
THE AFTERNOON
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad spends
the afternoon of his fight day in the
judges' chambers at New York Su-
preme Court. The sheriffs have
brought him there to answer a con-
tempt-of-court citation in a civil suit
wherein one of his former lawyers,
Daniel Kornstein, is suing for $35,000
in back legal fees. Eddie paid a $250
fine and was told to reappear in three
days.
"It's an incident that happened a
long time ago," Eddie later expalins.
"It was between my brother and this
lawyer. I wanted to pay the attorney,
but I was away for two months. After
what took place in Washington, noth-
ing can distract my concentration."
THE EVENING
It is 7:45 p.m., and the New York
boxing writers, most of whom are un-
aware of the legal episode that has
highlighted Eddie Mustafa Muham-
mad's afternoon, stand outside the Felt
Forum dressing rooms and wait for
hi. There is an eight round prelimi-
nary bout already underway, but Ed-
die, who is scheduled to fight as early
as early as 9p.m, hasn't yet shown up.
Concerned that he might lose his
feature fight, matchmaker Weston is even more edg than he was in the morning. And anager Buckley, one of Connecticut's top criminal lawyers jokes that “Maybe Eddie needed me this afternoon.”
Finally, one of the commisioners informs the writers that Eddie has arrived and is in his dressing room. But no one is allowed to interview him.
A junior middleweight named Carl Wilson kayos his opponent, Shawn Flynn, in the fourth round of a scheduled six round bout, and only a minute or two after ring announcer Dr. Marvin Goldberg raises the arm of the victor, Booze and Mustafa Muhammad are climbing through the ropes. Eddie, accompanied by his chief handler Don Caesar, is his usual confident self, expressionless, motionless, and unexcited, at least on the outside. It's his first fight in the United States in more than two years and his first fight in his hometown in almost six.
The fighters are introduced and giv-
en their instructions by referee Joe
Santarpia. The crowd, slightly bigger
than the usual cozy Felt Forum Friday
night house, is decidedly behind the
Brooklyn-born Mustafa Muhammad,
but quietly so. The opening bell rings,
and the fighters carefully move toward
one another. There has been none of
the extended prefight ceremony that
one would normally associate with the
comeback of a former world champi-
on. Nor is there more than a hint of
tension or electricity around ringside.
No one expects the limited Booze to
outbox Eddie or knock him out. The
way to defeat the often lazy and unin-
spired former titlist is to out-hustle
him. But Booze, surprisingly effective
in his previous bout, a critical 10-round
draw against Tim Broady, fights tenta-
tively. The first round is particularly
uneventful, as Booze allows Eddie to
pin him against the ropes and lean on
him. It becomes apparent from the
fight's start that neither light heavy-
weight will set a jackrabbit pace; if
Eddie is worried that he will wilt in the
late rounds, Booze will afford him the
opportunity to conserve energy over
the first half of the bout.
Eddie scores with a couple of jabs in
the second and shakes Booze with a right uppercut in the third. The fighters are content to infight. Seemingly glued at the forehead, they punch only in spurts. The difference in power is evident by the sound the body blows make. When Booze fires to Eddie's fleshy sides, there is a dull, almost polite tone. But when Eddie hooks to Booze's hips or ribs, there is more of apop, a smack, a thud. Predictably, however, Eddie's power is spent by the
seventh round.
"Usually when I dig that hook in,
they go," Eddie says later. "He was
looking at me and saying, 'Let's go.' 1
didn't want to tell him, 'Hey, that's all I got!' "
Booze starts fast in the sixth and
wins the seventh, but Mustafa Mu-
hammad regains control in the eighth
with superior defense and accurate
counterpunching. There is a wild ex-
change at the end of the eighth, and,
for the first time in the bout, the fans
stand and scream. Eddie does all the
scoring in the ninth and wants the
kayo, but doesn't come close in the
10th. The judges award him the unani-
mous decision by cards of 9-1, 6-4,
and 6-4. KO scores for Mustafa Mu-
hammad as well, 7-2-1. The victory is
not exciting, but in the ring, Eddie
Mustafa Muhammad rarely is.
"The type of fighter I am, I don't
want nobody easy," a tired but now
more talkative and cordial Eddie says
in a crowded dressing room. "In the
event Michael Spinks wants to fight
me, I'll be in shape."
"But Eddie," a writer asks, "is it
still realistic to think you can make 175 pounds?"
pounds?"
"As realistic as you standing there,"
he answers. "I want to be realistic, I
want four more fights before Spinks.
Michael Spinks needs me. I'm like the
white guy in the division."
Across the hall, Booze says he felt in the ring like Dan Marino in the Super Bowl. "I was never able to throw the touchdown pass," he reasons. "He's fair, though. I have to give him credit. I was relaxed and I wasn't scared, but I was in there with one of the best in the world. I learned from him."
Buckley, who says he's known Eddie
since the fighter was a welterweight in
the amateurs, is much more critical.
"If Tyrone did one-fifth of what he
should've done, this would have been
an easy fight for him," he says. "He
just never got off. Eddie's a nice guy,
but he should quit fighting. He's not
going anywhere. Just look at the guy.
He looks like Jackie Gleason. There's
no muscle tone, nothing."
Friends, relatives, and writers remain
in Eddie's dressing room long after the
bout is over. Thomas invites everyone
to a victory party. He says Eddie will
fight again in five weeks. "He's not on
the networks' shit list," he says.
just wanted to see some activity."
"My career has been nothing but
inactivity and controversy,” says Eddie. “Now I just want to be a fighter.”
KO Mag June 1985
Comments