Matthew Saad Muhammad died on Sunday. His obit appeared in yesterday's paper. He was only 59. Saad Muhammad fought as a light heavyweight, which is the boxing weight class of 168 to 175 lbs. He was probably one of the toughest guys ever to step into the ring.
The video above is from Saad Muhammad's first bout against Marvin Johnson, the July 26, 1977 North American Boxing Federation (NABF) light heavyweight title bout. Saad Muhammad fights as Matthew Franklin, the name the nuns gave him when they found him wandering alone on the street:
Discovered sleeping by nuns on the steps of a church, according to a Philadelphia magazine article, he was named Matthew, after the saint, and Franklin, after the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the road near which he was found. He later lived in foster homes.If you have some free time, watch this YouTube of Matt Franklin/Saad Muhammad's World Boxing Council (WBC) championship bout against Marvin Johnson.
The video of the WBC title fight is vintage ABC Sports, featuring commentary by Keith Jackson and "Up Close and Personal" features on both fighters. This video offers a glimpse of a time when America still had cohesiveness. The date is April 22, 1979. Professional boxing could boast of some of the best athletes in the world. There was still a working class culture. Black America had yet to be completely decimated by the mass incarceration of the drug wars. This is the world of my adolescence, a world that was gone by the time I reached adulthood.
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