Dwight Muhammad Qawi

CTL-E-7095 · Person · other · 1953–2025

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07967 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7095.

Dwight Muhammad Qawi was born Dwight Braxton on January 5, 1953, in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Camden, New Jersey, whose name his nickname, 'The Camden Buzzsaw,' carries. The International Boxing Hall of Fame records that he began sharpening his boxing skills during a stint at Rahway State Prison, was released in March 1978, trained at Joe Frazier's Gym in Philadelphia, and — with one month of training and no amateur fights — turned professional in April 1978 at age twenty-five. Fighting as Dwight Braxton, the 5-foot-7 pressure fighter stopped Hall of Famer Matthew Saad Muhammad in the tenth round on December 19, 1981, to win the WBC light heavyweight title, and stopped him again, in six rounds, in their rematch. In 1982, following his conversion to Islam, he legally changed his name to Dwight Muhammad Qawi. He lost the 1983 unification bout to Michael Spinks over fifteen rounds, then won the WBA cruiserweight title from Piet Crous on July 27, 1985, defended it against Leon Spinks, and lost a fifteen-round split decision to Evander Holyfield on July 12, 1986, in an action-packed thriller. He fought until 1998, finishing, as the Hall states his totals, 41-11-1 with 25 knockouts, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. Qawi died on July 25, 2025, at age seventy-two, after a five-year battle with dementia, his sister Wanda King told the Associated Press.

The record

• Also known as: Dwight Braxton, The Camden Buzzsaw, Camden Buzzsaw

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0476. Firsts disposition: no first is claimed; the Hall's framing — a two-weight champion built with no amateur career at all, turned pro at 25 out of Rahway State Prison — is carried as the record's distinctive fact, attributed to the Hall. Identity/variance, stated plainly: this record is Dwight Braxton, who fought his first title win as Braxton and legally became Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1982 after converting to Islam (IBHOF; BoxRec) — the name change is his own documented act, not a ring invention. He is a different man from Matthew Saad Muhammad (S8-15): the similar ring names must never borrow each other's facts — Qawi is the man who took Saad's title, twice, and Saad's comeback fights belong to Saad's record, not this one. The Hall gives his retirement year as 1998; some listings carry a final 1999 bout — the Hall's form is used and the variance flagged here. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Qawi is the packet's unlikeliest champion — 5-foot-7, no amateur pedigree, a prison start — who beat two Hall of Famers (Saad Muhammad, and Leon Spinks in a title defense) and fought a third, Holyfield, to a split decision in a classic. Photo: CLEARED, Public domain per the file-level LicenseShortName verified via the Commons API, September 1986 KO Magazine photograph whose Commons description names Dwight Muhammad Qawi; flagged for the head that the cleared lane rests on the Commons file page's public-domain determination for this magazine photograph, the same basis as the packet's other magazine-photograph clearances.

Relationships

• Evander Holyfield — related to
  Dwight Muhammad Qawi's two-fight cruiserweight title series with Evander Holyfield — the fifteen-round split decision of July 12, 1986, an action-packed thriller carried in Qawi's record (International Boxing Hall of Fame), and the 1987 rematch. Edge emitted by the head at assembly under the packet's defining-rivalry pattern (Lane B's emitted set), on the lane's flagged candidacy.
• Leon Spinks — related to
  Dwight Muhammad Qawi defended the WBA cruiserweight title against Leon Spinks in 1986, stopping him in the sixth round — Spinks's final championship opportunity (International Boxing Hall of Fame, 'Dwight Muhammad Qawi'; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Leon Spinks').
• Matthew Saad Muhammad — related to
  Dwight Muhammad Qawi won the WBC light heavyweight title from Matthew Saad Muhammad by 10th-round TKO on December 19, 1981, and stopped him again, in the 6th round, in their August 1982 rematch — a two-fight championship series between the two men (International Boxing Hall of Fame, 'Dwight Muhammad Qawi' and 'Matthew Saad Muhammad').

Referenced by

• Michael Spinks — related to → this record

Sources

• International Boxing Hall of Fame. "Dwight Muhammad Qawi." IBHOF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Associated Press. "Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Hall of Fame Boxer, Dies at 72." ESPN.com, July 28, 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• BoxRec. "Dwight Muhammad Qawi." BoxRec.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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Record CTL-E-7095 · Combined Graph record U-07967 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 4 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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