Over the weekend I rewatched the Qawi-Saad rematch for the first time in a long time. In maybe like 15 years. DAMN Qawi was a machine in this fight. In the first fight, Saad was hanging onto the excuse that he was weight drained. So Qawi just fucked him up 5x worse in the rematch. Yes, I realize that Saad was faded from the all the punishment he took in his brief prime, but no version of Saad is ever beating Qawi. Defense just too leaky. Even on Saad's best of days, he was going life and death with Johnson and Lopez. Qawi would always be too much for him. But the combination punching, and offensive countering from Qawi is just off-the-charts in this fight. This was Qawi's apex performance. This was his Sanchez-Gomez, or Crawford-Spence.
We were just talking about Beterbiev and Bivol versus Qawi... Fuck no Beterbiev and Bivol ain't beating this version of Qawi.
I watched both of those fights live on TV with my Dad. Braxton at that time, would’ve eaten up just about any light heavyweight since. kinda like a combo of Hagler and Duran
With his dimensions i would add in Marciano, just not as a big of a hitter but obviously better defensively.
Qawi looked awesome in both fights. Not sure why they needed to do a rematch considering how one sided the first fight was. Even though MSM was already war torn by that point he would always lose to Qawi, who was just a nightmare of a fighter to deal with. He was pretty much like a smaller version of Joe Frazier but with better defense and boxing skills.
Well, in fairness to Smokin Joe, Qawi had less firepower (even P4P), despite having better skill and defense.
They were both better at certain aspects than the other. Qawi didn’t have Frazier’s workrate, power, or left hook but he was definitely harder to hit and had a better jab. If Qawi had the physique and power of George Foreman he would have been an absolute destroyer.
The other edge I'd give Frazier was more will. Spinks was able to tame Qawi. To the point Qawi became a bit gun shy. Frazier you had to almost kill him (The Thrilla) to stop him from pressing on. I don't think Qawi had quite Joe's will. Not saying Qawi lacked heart, he certainly didn't. But that Frazier/Marciano will to win is very rare.
Thats a good point. A bit of a hot take, but the frazier simlarity is why I think Qawi would beat Foster, who looked absolutely inept against frazier pressure and bobbing and weaving
I don't think Qawi would get past Foster's jab, and when he does, Bob would hurt him. In Frazier, you're talking about a much bigger and stronger man than Qawi. Picking Qawi over Foster isn't the craziest hot take. I disagree with it, but it's within the realm of possibility.
