A Light Heavyweight Champion in a Philadelphia Shelter

Matthew Saad Muhammad was a Philadelphia boxer who became light heavyweight champion of the world. His career lasted about 18 years, mostly through the 1970s and early 1980s, in the television era when leading fighters could be paid $300,000 or more for a single bout. Philadelphia Magazine estimated that he earned around $4 million, and possibly more, because nobody kept a close count.

The magazine describes how he once lived at the top of that world. He carried large amounts of cash, travelled with an entourage of nearly fifty people, owned a dream house and drove expensive cars, among them a Rolls-Royce that cost $275,000. The article does not explain how the money disappeared, saying only that he ended up with none of it.

In June 2010, with no money and nowhere to go, he walked into a homeless shelter on Ridge Avenue in North Philadelphia. He stayed there for four months. The piece gives no more detail about daily life in the shelter.

Writer Tim Whitaker met him in late spring 2011, when Saad Muhammad was 57, over lunch at Chickie's & Pete's in South Philadelphia. He talked in loosely connected stories about his fights and his past, and began by saying that boxing is no good for anybody. Whitaker noted that his story had more low points than high ones, going back to his early years.

By then Saad Muhammad was getting ready to give something back. Less than a month after the interview, he was due to host a fundraiser at the same restaurant called Knock Out Homelessness. The article does not say how the event went.