Sometimes fighters
are reviled because
they have done time
in prison. Mike
Tyson and Paul
Spadafora ( former
IBF champion, now
resuming his career
on parole after
being convicted of
shooting his
girlfriend in
Pittsburgh)
immediately come to
mind. So do Ike
Ibeabuchi, Michael
Nunn, and Tony Ayala
Jr each of whom is
now incarcerated. Of
course, who can
forget the great
Carlos Monzon who in
1989 was convicted
for the homicide of
his second wife.
Monzon was inducted
into the
International Boxing
Hall of Fame in
1990, while still
serving his sentence
in an Argentinean
prison. On a
somewhat less
serious level and
more forgivable
level, Diego
Corrales and Naseem
Hamed also might be
mentioned. There are
others too numerous
to cite here. For
these, the hard
times followed the
good times.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi
However, there are some boxers who
should not be vilified, for they
have paid their debt and have used
boxing as a stepping stone for a
better life. Indeed, what do Charles
“Sonny” Liston, Bernard “The
Executioner” Hopkins, Dwight
Muhammad Qawi and Ron Lyle have in
common besides being great fighters
in their day? The answer to that
question is what this essay is all
about.
Ron Lyle, 43 - 7 - 1 (31 ko's), He
was paroled from Colorado State
Penitentiary after 7-1/2 years and
got off to a late start in
professional boxing after being
released at the age of 29. He was
jailed for second-degree murder,
during which he was stabbed in the
abdomen. He almost died from the
injury but was saved by doctors in a
long operation. Upon release, he won
his first 19 fights. He lost to
Jerry Quarry in 1973 and Jimmy Young
in 1975, but he was given an
opportunity to face Champion Ali in
1975 and was stopped after having
given a great account of himself.
Perhaps Lyle's career defining fight
was actually a loss. Who can ever
forget when he had George Foreman on
the canvas twice before caving in to
George’s attack in a Fight of the
Year and one of the best heavyweight
shoot-outs in many, many years? Ron
Lyle conducted himself as a
gentleman during his boxing career
and currently trains other boxers.
Charles “Sonny” Liston, 50 -4- 39 by
knockout. The following is taken
from: "Liston was trouble in and out
of ring," by Mike Puma, Special to
ESPN.com, Oct. 16, 2005
".....Liston believed his birth date
was May 8, 1932, but he was never
sure and that led to speculation he
was actually a few years older. The
24th of 25 children fathered by
Tobey or Tobe Liston (one of 10 with
his wife Helen), Sonny came into the
world in a tenant's shack 17 miles
northwest of Forrest City, Ark. "I
had nothing when I was a kid but a
lot of brothers and sisters, a
helpless mother and a father who
didn't care about any of us," he
said. "We grew up with few clothes,
no shoes, little to eat. My father
worked me hard and whupped me
hard......Helen left her husband and
moved to St. Louis in 1946. Sonny
ran away from home to join her.
Unable to read or write, the burly
teenager attempted to make a living
on the streets of St. Louis. In
1950, he and two others were
arrested for armed robbery of two
gas stations and a diner. Pleading
guilty to two counts of first-degree
robbery and two charges of larceny,
he was sentenced to five years on
each charge to run concurrently.
"While at the Missouri State
Penitentiary in Jefferson City, he
started boxing. On Oct. 30, 1952, he
was released on parole and he turned
professional the following
September. His first pro fight
lasted 33 seconds: Liston leveled
Don Smith with his first punch....Liston
was a marked man in St. Louis, where
police were known to stop him on
sight, sometimes without cause. On
May 5, 1956, he erupted. When a cop
confronted him and a friend about a
cab parked near Liston's home, he
assaulted the officer, breaking his
knee and gashing his face, and took
his gun. Liston received nine months
in the city workhouse.
"After his release, Liston had
another altercation with a cop --
this time he left an officer
headfirst in a trash can. A police
sergeant put out the word that
Liston should leave town or else.
Sonny heeded the ultimatum, and went
to Philadelphia. His managers sold
his contract to a group headed by
Carbo and Palermo. While Liston
began working into shape with hopes
for a heavyweight title shot, he
also continued his anti-social
behavior. Two more arrests -- for
disorderly conduct and resisting
arrest and another for impersonating
a cop -- led to Liston being
suspended by the Pennsylvania
Athletic Commission on July 14,
1961. The suspension was honored in
all states. Liston's license was
reinstated three months later..."
While in jail in 1952 for robbery,
Liston learned to box under the
tutelage of a Catholic priest who
worked with inmates. After a
successful amateur career, Liston
turned pro and, with a menacing aura
affirmed by his brutal and
devastating victories, he
methodically worked his way to
become a dominant Heavyweight
fighter for most of his career
beating such fighters as Bert
Whitehurst, Zora Folley, Eddie
Machen, Willi Besmanoff, Cleveland
Williams, Nino Valdes and, of
course, Heavyweight champion Floyd
Patterson twice. After his two
losses to Ali (one of which remains
highly controversial), he would go
on to win 15 of his last 16 fights
over a period of four years. On
January 5, 1971, his body was found
by his wife in his Las Vegas home.
Coroners suggested Liston might have
been dead for as long as a week. The
determined cause of death was heart
failure and lung congestion, though
suspicion remain.
Sonny was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in
1991......quite an accomplishment
for the 24th of 25 children. Quite
an accomplishment for a person who
had such a hard scrabble beginning.
Dwight Muhammad Qawi, 41-11-1 (25
kayos). He grew up in a poor section
of Camden, NJ where he got involved
with crime at a young age. Convicted
of armed robbery, he spent more than
four years at New Jersey's Rahway
State Prison where he too learned to
box. He turned professional upon his
release One very tough customer, he
was nicknamed “The Camden Buzzsaw”
for the constant and in coming
pressure he put on his opponents.
Just four years after his release
from Rahway, he tko'd the great
Matthew Saad Muhammad for the WBC
Light Heavyweight title. It was
shortly after this that he announced
his conversion to Islam and changed
his name. Then, after dropping a
razor thin decision to Michael
Spinks in 1983, a fight in which he
put Spinks on the canvas, he moved
up to Cruiserweight and became WBA
champion in 1985. His grueling
unification match with Evander
Holyfield was pure action and the
decision could have gone either way,
but it went to Holyfield after 15
rounds of pure hell.
But it was at Rahway that he found
himself. The prison had a great
boxing program and one of its
inmates, James "Great" Scott , was a
tough and popular middleweight title
contender who fought several times
inside the prison in televised
bouts. Amazingly, on September 5,
1981, Dwight Braxton (his name
before his conversion to Islam)
returned to Rahway to fight Scott.
The stakes were high; the winner was
promised a shot at Matthew Saad
Muhammad's WBC world championship
belt. Qawi, then known as Dwight
Braxton, won a unanimous 10-round
decision and got the shot at Saad.
Currently, he works as a boxing
trainer in New Jersey and is deeply
involved in Community activities.
Qawi was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in
2004.
Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins,
47 - 4 -1- 1 (32 ko's), In 1982,
still at a relatively young age,
Hopkins committed a robbery which
cost him almost 5 years in jail (Graterford
State Penitentiary), from 1984 to
1989. He joined the boxing gym in
jail and began to train and fight,
he even won the national
penitentiary middleweight
championship three times. When he
was released from jail in 1988 and
began his professional boxing
career, he had one purpose in life,
to become champion of the world.
During an interview with Johnny
Goodtimes on September 20, 2005,
entitled "The Executioner's Tale,
Volume 1," Hopkins was asked,
"Johnny: You spent some time
yourself in for strong-arm robbery.
You spent almost five years there.
You came out of prison in '88, and
you were obviously a different
person when you came out of prison
than you were going into prison.
"Bernard: Prison didn't change me. I
changed myself. But let me tell you
what changed my thinking. It took a
year. It took me a year for me to
realize that because of my
ignorance, that I became, overnight,
somebodies 401 (k). It was because
of my ignorance, I'm gonna keep
saying that to let you know that
there is no blame game going on
here. But because of my ignorance, I
became a part of modernized slavery.
I got up at the crack of dawn, me
and eight or nine other guys. Loaded
up on a bus, shackled from the waist
down, went out to a field, half a
mile from the prison, picked
potatoes, picked corn, planted
flowers, kept the wardens house
clean, put the mulch down. That's
how I learned about landscaping.
Most of the time I do my own house
out in Delaware. That stuff looks
good when you come up for parole.
They ask you, did you stay in your
cell for five years, or did you do
work, get your GED? What did you
accomplish while you were here? That
could make or break whether you go
home or not..........
………….If you want to ask, on this
planet, who is the one that can
transform from a robber to a
worldwide revered figure; who is the
one that can dominate the
middleweight boxing division making
a division-record 20 middleweight
title defenses; who is the one that
as a middleweight moved up two
weight classes to challenge the
light heavyweight king. One man that
made the difference, Bernard
Hopkins."
It appears Bernard's journey has not
yet ended, for certain induction
into the International Boxing Hall
of Fame awaits him. In the meantime,
he is a partner in Golden Boy
Promotions.
So what is that these four have in
common? Well, for one thing, their
incarceration preceded their great
accomplishments in the ring. For
another, a transformation clearly
began during their time in jail. Two
of them, Hopkins and Qawi, thrived
with new purpose in life. Lyle and
Liston went on to boxing greatness
at different levels. These guys paid
for their transgressions and more
than made up for them. Unlike
fighters who go to prison while they
are fighting of after their careers,
these four used prison as a
launching pad. They had some hard
times....but then they had good
times. If anything, they should be
commended for their accomplishments.
"People who overcome adversity.
George Foreman, Tyson, Iran Barkley,
people who you know where they came
from. Anybody that comes from the
inner-city and rises from that
situation. James Toney. I could go
on and on. Anybody that comes from
adversity. I'll read it and know
it's true. Because it's so easy to
lay down. Lay down and say, I'm
gonna rob a bank. That's an easy
cop-out. But to say, I'm not gonna
be like that...it takes a lot to do
that when you have nothing in the
refrigerator. It takes a lot. That's
adversity. It's so easy to take the
easy way out. It's so easy to lay
down. It's so hard to get up."
Bernard Hopkins when asked who were
the people he most admired...
