Remembering Dwight Muhammad Qawi (1953-2025) and his Triumphant Return to Prison

Hall of Fame boxer Dwight Muhammad Qawi passed away last Friday, July 25, at age 72 in Baltimore, his birthplace. Among his distinctions, Qawi, who stood a shade under five-foot-seven, was the shortest light heavyweight champion in boxing history and was a principal in what is widely regarded as the greatest cruiserweight match ever.

Qawi was raised across the Delaware River from Philadelphia in Camden, New Jersey, a city scarred by poverty and crime. He was 14 years old when he was first arrested and he would go on to serve 5 ½ years in prison for the armed robbery of a liquor store before turning pro at age 25 with no amateur background. Roughly half of his time behind bars was spent at Rahway, New Jersey’s most notorious prison.

Qawi would become more generally known when he returned to Rahway as a civilian to take on inmate No. 57735 James Scott. Their bout on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 5, 1981, was nationally televised on NBC.

Scott, who grew up in Newark, had his first 11 fights in Miami Beach before violating his parole and returning to prison as a habitual offender. Inside Rahway, he continued his career, winning nine of 10 fights before meeting up with his former “fraternity brother” Qawi. His biggest win was an upset of future light heavyweight champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad (then known as Eddie Gregory) who was then ranked #1 at 175 by the WBA. Scott won a wide 12-round decision. The bout, recognized as the first professional boxing match televised behind prison walls, aired on the fledgling HBO network with legendary blow-by-blow announcer Don Dunphy calling the action assisted by Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard.

The circumstances surrounding his ascent up the ranks made James “The Great” Scott a celebrity until Dwight Muhammad Qawi burst his bubble. The “Camden Buzzsaw” (an apt nickname) had Scott fighting off his back foot for 10 rounds with his non-stop aggression. Scott lost a wide decision and never fought again.

Before the year was out, Qawi won the WBC light heavyweight title with a 10^th-round stoppage of Matthew Saad Muhammad. It was an unexpectedly dominating performance. “Saad,” who was making his ninth title defense, struggled to make weight and had to be hospitalized after the bout with severe dehydration. There would be a rematch that Qawi won even more conclusively. He was up by 7, 8, and 9 points through five rounds before ending matters in the sixth. This bout was held at the Spectrum in Philadelphia where Qawi had briefly worked as a maintenance man.

In March of 1983, it what would be his final fight at 175, Qawi challenged Michael Spinks for the undisputed light heavyweight title. Qawi had his moments, jolting Spinks on a half-dozen occasions and knocking down in the eighth, but Spinks won a unanimous decision. (The previous year, Qawi had quietly changed his name but reporters were not yet clued in and the public still knew him by his birth name Dwight Braxton.)

Qawi rebounded with seven wins, the first against three-time opponent Johnny Davis, who had saddled him with his first defeat in a 6-rounder when both were near-novices, and the last coming in Sun City, South Africa, an 11^th-round stoppage of South Africa’s Piet Crous for the WBA cruiserweight title (the WBA then called it the junior heavyweight title; the limit was 190 pounds).

That led to his epic confrontation with Evander Holyfield. They met on July 12, 1986 in Atlanta, Evander’s hometown.

The 15-round fight was a humdinger, contested at a furious pace. Qawi fell behind early after Holyfield staggered him in the opening round, but fought his way back into the fight before losing the decision. At the end the scores were all over the map with one of the judges favoring Qawi by two points even though Qawi had a point deducted in the final round for low blows.

Holyfield, like Matthew Saad Muhammad before him, was so dehydrated after the bout that he had to spend the night in the hospital, but history would show that the fight took more out of the Camden Buzzsaw who at age 33 was the older man by almost 10 years. Holyfield knocked him out in four rounds in the rematch.

After his rematch with Holyfield, Qawi opposed George Foreman. He came in a blubbery 222 and predictably had no stamina. He did well for four rounds but then started to fade and was completely out of gas by round seven when he turned his back on Big George and the match was halted.

Qawi would have one more crack at the WBA 190-pound title, losing a split decision to Robert Daniels in a lackluster fight in France. He finished 49-11-1 with 25 knockouts.

In retirement, Qawi became a poster boy for the argument that boxing and the discipline it imposes can be redemptive, reforming young thugs into solid citizens. He became a counselor at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility and was heavily involved in community outreach including a “Stay in School” program for at-risk youth in Camden.

Dwight Muhammad Qawi was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2004. At the induction ceremony he said, “I went from breaking people to fixing them. I believe in healing. I’m a wounded healer. God does the healing, I am a facilitator.”

During the final years of his life, Qawi battled dementia. May he rest in peace.

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