FROM ALI TO PACQUIAO, MURAD MUHAMMAD IN HIS OWN WORDS PT. 7: ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN

By Percy Crawford | February 09, 2010

"When I met Roy [Jones Jr.], Roy came to meand things happened that I didn't like with Roy, but I will never forget, he came to me...Roy's thing was, 'Let's fight to win and not for money.' So if he thought a fight was too tough, he didn't care about the money, but then when we took on the heavyweight champ of the world, my thing was, 'Roy, let's fight for the money and pray that we win.' He said, 'You're right!' He made 17 million. I raised Roy from 3 million to 17 million and fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world. These things are original. We were selling out in Mississippi where no man would ever go," stated promoter Murad Muhammad as he spoke openly about his years with Roy Jones Jr., the man once referred to as Superman, and much more. Don't miss this behind-the-scenes look into the history of the sport as Murad himself tells his story in his own words. From Muhammad Ali to Manny Pacquiao, he has worked alongside some of the biggest names in boxing and you don't want to miss more of his extremely revealing tales. Check it out!

So I began to build honesty, integrity and a great relationship with my fighters. Lennox Lewis said, "Man, I'm under contract, but if I wasn't, I would be with you." I told him, "I'm honored that you would tell me that, but why would you say that?" He said, "You treat your fighters the way any man would want to be treated. You take care of them in and out of the ring." Well, that's true because I always get close to my athlete. I want to get them more to want in life.

When I met Roy [Jones Jr.], Roy came to meand things happened that I didn't like with Roy, but I will never forget, he came to me. He came to me when nobody in his glory would say, "Hey man, take over my career." I thought that was an honor. I told him, I said, "Roy, we can get there. Are you rich?" He said, "Yeah, I'm rich." I said, "How about your mother and father and your siblings? How about your children and your children's children?" He said, "We got a lot of work to do." I said, "You're right. Understand, this is a gift from God and you have to perform until you can't perform anymore. You don't take things for granted. Let's fight for our children and let's fight for our parents. You gotta fight for the inner city and give back." So when we went in the ring, we had a purpose. It wasn't to just win a fight and make some money. Roy's thing was, "Let's fight to win and not for money." So if he thought a fight was too tough, he didn't care about the money, but then when we took on the heavyweight champ of the world, my thing was, "Roy, let's fight for the money and pray that we win." He said, "You're right!" He made 17 million. I raised Roy from 3 million to 17 million and fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world. These things are original. We were selling out in Mississippi where no man would ever go. I didn't go to Vegas where Arum and King was, I didn't go to New York where Arum and King was, I went to Mississippi. I convinced Roy that this is where our ancestors were slaughtered and hung from trees, our fathers castrated, our daughters were raped and our mothers were unwillingly impregnated with their babies. Mississippi is the worst state in the history of our ancestors man. Roy said, "Well, why we going?" I said, "To prove that it is a new day. To prove that two African Americans can walk into a state that did all of those bad things for years and have now repented."

So I went into the casino and they said, "We can't afford Roy Jones Jr. and Roy Jones Jr. is not going to come here." I said, "Well, why do you think he would not come here?" He said, "Well, the Commissioner made the mistake and told him when he was walking with this white girl, 'Don't you ever bring a white girl here again.' He said he didn't mean it; he was just joking." I said, "Listen, every African American is weak for one thing." He said, "What's that?" I said, "An automobile." So he said, "Well, what could we do?" I had a meeting with all of the casinos. I said, "Let's buy him an automobile." They started naming cars, Cadillac, Lincoln a Mercedes Benz. I said, "Nope, a Rolls-Royce Corniche." They said, "Murad that's a $250,000 car." I said, "Ah, we probably can buy it for $200,000. If you give him the key to this city and the Corniche, it will touch his heart." They said, "He could buy his own." But I said, "That's the key; you gave it to him. No one has ever gave him a gift like that and we will win him over." So they said, "Yeah, but how do we make it back?" I said, "I'll show you. Trust me!"

So we gave him the Corniche and the fine girl sitting on the back of it and he had tears in his eyes because no one had ever given him anything, but I know us as a people. I know what touches our sensitivity. So now he's riding home in a brand new Corniche and the key to the city that had treated our ancestors so bad for years. I told Roy to look at the history. Our ancestors would have the Holy Ghost if they could see this. Their deaths didn't go in vein. So now they got Roy and they say to me, "How are you going to do this? How are you going to get our money back?" I said, "Listen, do you believe we are going to sell $200,000 worth of tickets at the gate?" He said, "Yeah, we will do that just from the casino control boards. We will be able to do that." I said, "You got it. Here is 200 tickets. The first 200 tickets is yours." So we did 1.2 million, the first time in the history of Mississippi. I put Mississippi on the map. We did so well up there, they told me not to ask them for a Presidential Suite. That's why when some fool charged me with taking a suite from a fighter, that was so immature and so ignorant. It's so unintelligent, but I couldn't dignify it because if that's what he wanted to say, that I took a suiteI've been having suites ever since I was a kid flying around with Muhammad Ali.

So the casino said, "What can we do for you Murad? And don't tell us about the Presidential Suite because you get a Presidential Suite wherever you go in our building." So Bally's Park Place treated me honorable. That's another story, but I said, "I do want something. You know that Hall of Fame of Stars where ya'll got the Beatles, Smokey Robinson and Bill Cosby?" They said, "Yeah!" I said, "Put me up there." They said, "Put you up there? That's all you want?" I said, "Yes, put me up there with all the famous people and when they say, 'Well he don't sing, he don't dance or perform. Why is his picture up there?' Tell them, 'He brings millions to this establishment.'" (Laughing) And that's what they did. They put my name up there and my sister called me when New Orleans went down because of the flood and she said, "I feel sorry for 2 things." I said, "What?" She said, "For the people that's hurt and that your picture went down in the water." That's what my sister said. I said, "Joan, why would you be upset that my picture went down?" She said, "Because they will never do it again for you." So everywhere I went, I was an asset.

So I got a call from Madison Square Garden with them asking me to come to the Garden. I said, "No, I like to stay where I am at because where I am at, I sell out." So Don King had a heavyweight title fight there and one of his athletes had Hepatitis and the fight was cancelled and all of the fight fans were upset. I told them that I would come into the Garden, but I wanted to go into the small one. Normally, I wouldn't do that, but I knew I would sell it out. I wanted to be able to say, "Sold out crowd!" But we only went there for the fans that had lost their hope of seeing a great fight at the Garden. That's the way I promoted it and that's why we came. We [Roy Jones Jr.] fought there and got dropped there by that Latino, Lou Del Valle. He dropped us, we got up and we whooped him and came out of the Garden. They called me back and said, "You can do the big top." I said, "Nah, Roy's not ready for the big top." They said, "Murad, we will do at least 14,000 people." I said, "Yeah, but that's not a sellout. Here, I can write, 'Sold out crowd.' I like this 12,000 people here that come and support us." They kept begging me, so I thought about it. I remember when I was in the projects and I used to watch the Wooden Soldiers and the Rockettes and my mother couldn't afford for us to go. She used to always tell me we can't afford to go there. All of my life, I wanted to get to Radio City Music Hall, but not just to sit in the audience. I wanted to be on that stage. I couldn't sing, I couldn't dance or play any instruments. I couldn't do anything to get me on that stage, but I always believed as a young man that I would grace that stage. So I said, "Alright, I got something for you. Give me Radio City Music Hall and I will come." They said, "Radio City Music Hall? You got it!" I sold it out in 1 week.

We brought in Redman and Method Man. Now that was not my idea; that was Roy's idea. He said, "Murad, let's bring in two rappers." I said, "Roy, they will kill us." He said, "But Murad, it's like you always say, it's their first time and they might not ever get The Radio City Music Hall." I thought about it and told him, "Done deal." So we overruled everybody because when I sign a deal, I take over. Nobody dictates to me the way I put on my fights, how I do my fights or anything like that. So Sports Illustrated came to me and they said, "Murad, we went to HBO and they told us no." I said, "No about what?" They said, "We want to shoot the fight while it's going on, but they said our cameras might catch the eye of one of the boxers and it could be an accident." I said, "Who told you that?" He said, "HBO." I told him, "They don't hold any jurisdiction over my promotion. You bring your cameras and shoot whatever you want." And my God it was the greatest moment ever when we fought on that stage. Whitney Houston, who I called, said, "As long as you give me two tickets, one for me and Bobby, I will be there." She sung "America the Beautiful" for us and Redman and Method Man came down those stairs and the crowd went crazy. I hid behind the curtains because I thought the white folks would be upset. Man, they was jumping up and down like they were you and me. I walked out with my chest high and just felt like we had done it. Roy put on a great performance. So I had graced the largest stage in the world of Radio City Music Hall and I got into Sports Illustrated. They took a beautiful gorgeous picture of me sitting at ringside and Roy fighting and they took a shot of the entire arena. You can see all of the Caucasians and very few of us and I remember Bill Cosby was sitting there. He told me not to announce his name. He said, "Murad, don't announce my name." He didn't want anyone to know he was there. He could have been somewhere else, like Whitney was supposed to be at the awards and they talked about her coming to my fights and skipping the awards show. We had Star and all of the superstars there.

When the magazine came out, I had it blown up and put it on my wall. Everybody said, "Where is your name?" See, they used to take my name down. I had to sign a special security man because if you look up there, you see everybody's name but Muhammad. They would say, "I forgot to put your banner up." Then, if we came in too late, they would say, "Well we can't bring the truck back." So I had to hire a special security man and his job was not to leave until my banner went up in lights. So they tried to block my name going up in lights and they did in that one. They didn't put my name up. All you saw was Radio City Music Hall and you saw HBO, but you didn't see Murad Muhammad. But the pictures they took were so vivid of the ring, on the ring post, you can see it so great that it was big as day"Murad!" That was a gratifying moment in my life. I made two things that I never thought I would get in: Radio City Music Hall and Sports Illustrated.

BE SURE TO CHECK BACK FOR PART 8 AS MUHAMMAD REVEALS MUCH MORE ABOUT HIS YEARS AS A PROMOTER

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