Mohammed, Matthew Saad

Born on August 5, 1954 in Philadelphia with the name Maxwell Antonio Loach, due to the early death of his mother, he lived with his aunt with his aunt. When he was five years old, the aunt decided that she could not look after two children, and asked the oldest child to get rid of the youngest - he took him to Benjamin Franklin Boulevard and threw him there. The boy was brought up by the Catholic Social Service, the nuns gave him the name Matthew Franklin (in honor of the apostle and the boulevard where he was found). He was later adopted by a married couple from Philadelphia ^[1] .

He started his boxing career as an amateur, in 1973 he won the Trenton Golden Gloves regional tournament, and he had 20 fights at the amateur level.

He made his debut among professionals in January 1974, spent eleven fights in two years, lost only once on points and ended the fight with a draw once ^[2] . The first serious success was achieved in 1976, when he met with Olympic champion from Yugoslavia Mate Parlov and future world champion Marvin Camel - twice with each. Both fights with Parlov took place in Milan, in the first case he won against him by decision of the judges in eight rounds, in the second after ten rounds a draw was fixed. Camela also won on points in the first ten-round confrontation, and then lost in the rematch with the same result.

The year 1977 began with the defeat of future world champion Eddie Gregory , but quickly rehabilitated in the eyes of the fans, taking precedence over future three-time world champion Marvin Johnson (knockout in the twelfth round) and thereby winning the title of North American light heavyweight champion - this was his first battle broadcast on national television. Shortly after this victory, he, following the example of Mohammed Ali, converted to Islam and changed his name to Matthew Saad Mohammed ^[3] .

The following year he defended the North American champion’s belt several times, after which he won the right to challenge the world light heavyweight champion title according to the World Boxing Council - in April 1979 he met with Marvin Johnson, who had previously taken the championship belt from Parlov, and defeated him by technical knockout in the eighth round.

Mohammed remained the champion for more than two years, having managed to defend the title eight times, including defeating such well-known boxers as John Conteh , Lottie Mwale , Murray Sutherland , and his fight with Mexican Yakui Lopez was recognized by Ring magazine as the best fight of 1980 - during a dramatic 14-round confrontation, he missed twenty unrequited strikes, but managed to recover and then knocked down Lopez five times. During the ninth defense, held in December 1981, he was defeated by Dwight Brexton by technical knockout in the tenth round. Six months later, a rematch took place between them, Mohammed lost again, this time in the sixth round.

Subsequently, Matthew Saad Mohammed continued to enter the ring with alternate success for another ten years, traveled to many countries, including fought in Germany, Australia, Spain, Serbia, the Bahamas and even in Trinidad and Tobago, although he did not achieve any significant achievements. Among his rivals were such famous masters as Juraj Grant , Marcus Bott , Anton Yosipovich , Andrew Maynard - he lost to all of them. In 1991, he also fought in Japan under mixed rules in the Japanese organization UWFI against the fighter Kiyoshi Tamura , and lost to him as a result of a painful reception. In early 1992, having suffered another knockout defeat, Mohammed decided to end his sports career. In total, in professional boxing, he spent 68 fights, of which 49 ended with victory (including 35 ahead of schedule), lost 16 times, in three cases a draw was recorded. In 1998, he was introduced to the International Boxing Hall of Fame , in the list of the hundred greatest punchers according to the magazine “Ring” he took twenty-fourth place.

After completing his career as a professional athlete, he worked for some time as a boxing trainer in Atlantic City , in particular, his student was the Indian boxer Gurkharan Singh, a former member of the Indian Olympic team, who won many victories among the pros. Despite the fact that during a long boxing biography, Mohammed received royalties of about four million dollars, as a result, he repeatedly had serious financial problems due to a wasteful lifestyle, great generosity and connections with dubious people. Already in 1986, he declared himself bankrupt , in the 1990s he lived in poverty, and in July 2010 he was found homeless on the streets of Philadelphia - from that moment he was supported by local charity funds that help the homeless ^[4] .

He died in one of the Philadelphia hospitals on May 25, 2014 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ^[5] .

• Matthew Saad Mohammed - professional boxing statistics for BoxRec