The story of Matthew
Saad Muhammad is one of the most classic and compelling in all of
sports history. Born Maxwell Antonio Loach, his mother died when he
was infant. An aunt took him in, but soon found that she couldn't
handle the addition to her family. So she abandoned him, leaving the
five year old boy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. In Catholic Social
Services, the nuns who raised him gave him the name Matthew Franklin,
Matthew, from the Bible, and Franklin, from the Parkway where they
found him.
He bounced around to several schools, and often got
into trouble. After a few scrapes, he went to the Juniper Street Gym
in South Philly to learn to fight. There he found his calling.
Matthew
Saad Muhammad rose through the ranks with a crowd pleasing, fast
action style, a big puncher who liked to fight and feasted on punishment.
In 1977, in just his 21st pro fight, he knocked out Marvin Johnson
in the 12th round in a brutal fight to win the light heavyweight title.
He defended that title three times before meeting Johnson again for
the WBC title in 1979 in another classic. Bleeding heavily from cuts
above both eyes, he knocked out Johnson in the eighth round.
However,
like so many boxers from that era, Saad Muhammad fell on hard times
after his career was over. At one time he was supporting an entourage
of 39 people. He said the people he trusted to safeguard his money
took advantage of him.
"I had so many people whispering in my
ear: Yo, Champ, do this. Yo, Champ, do that. They'd give me that 'Champ'
bull," Saad Muhammad said. "That's why I fell on my behind. I had
the wrong people around me, who abused me and used me.
"Money
was flying everywhere. Friends of friends, their mothers, their fathers,
their brothers. They were all happy to be around me, eating me alive,
taking money from me. I'd always say: That's all right, buddy! I was
always so happy. Matthew Saad Muhammad was always up for it, with
everybody.
"I gave a lot of money away. I had millions of dollars.
I had saving. I had a bank account. But people I trusted ran away
with my money."