For the Director of the Manchester United's football board, see Maurice Watkins (solicitor)

Maurice Watkins (solicitor)

Maurice Watkins LLB, LLM is a Director of Manchester United's football board. He is also the club's solicitor. He is also Joint Senior Partner of Brabners Chaffe Street LLP Solicitors in Manchester....

Maurice Watkins (born August 29, 1956) is a former boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 from Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

. Nicknamed Termite, he was born into a family that was in the insect killing business, and he is a professional fumigator.

Professional Boxing Career

Watkins turned professional as a boxer on May 21, 1974, beating Cesar Cortez by knockout

Knockout

A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...

 in round one at Houston. Through his career, Watkins fought some of the best fighters in the Lightweight and Jr. Welterweight divisions. He beat Marion Thomas by a knockout in round seven, Rocky Ramon by a decision in twelve, Arturo Leon by decision in ten, Bruce Strauss

Bruce Strauss

Bruce Strauss is a former boxer who is more known for his losses than for his wins. Sometimes he would use the alias of Ruben Bardot to obtain fights. His nickname was The Mouse....

 by knockout in three, Bobby Rodriguez

Bobby Rodriguez

-Personal life:Bobby Rodriguez is a member of Minnesota's illustrious Rodriguez family of boxers: Rafael, Kenny, Rudy, all of whom fought professionals; brother John, who fought only as an amateur, and Cory, son of John, who is an active professional boxer at this writing...

 by knockout in one, and others. His fight with former United States Lightweight champion Norman Goins resulted in a three round no contest

No contest (boxing)

No contest is a technical term used in some combat sports to describe a fight that ends for reasons outside the fighters' hands.-Boxing:...

. He also lost to Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 gold medalist Howard Davis Jr.

Howard Davis Jr.

Howard Edward Davis, Jr. is a retired world-class American amateur and professional boxer. Growing up on Long Island as the eldest of 10 children, Davis first learned boxing from his father. After being inspired by a movie about Muhammad Ali, Davis embarked on his amateur career. He won the 1976...

. and Alfredo Escalera

Alfredo Escalera

Alfredo Escalera is a Puerto Rican who was a world champion boxer. A native of Carolina, his nickname was "Salsero" because he was a fan of Salsa music.-Early boxing career:...

. On October 2 of 1980, at the Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....

 hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, he got his only world title shot, losing to Saoul Mamby

Saoul Mamby

Saoul Paul Mamby was a professional boxer between 1969 and 2008.- Personal :Mamby, the child of a mother of Spanish descent and father from Jamaica, converted to Judaism at age 4.Mamby is also a Vietnam veteran....

 by a fifteen round decision for the WBC

World Boxing Council

The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...

's world Jr. Welterweight title. He retired with 61 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws (tie), one no contest and 42 wins by knockout.

After Boxing

After retiring, Watkins went back to Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 to work as a fumigator. He remained in obscurity there for many years.

In 2003, the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 military, needing personnel to work rebuilding Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

's infrastructure, contracted him as a fumigator to work on Iraqi homes that had been decaying and infected with insects during Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

's presidency. The military did not know of Watkins' background as a boxer.

In 2008, writer Suzy Pepper, a former neighbor of Maurice Watkins, released "Termite", a biographical book about Mr. Watkinshttp://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/01414.htm. Also in 2008, a movie based on the book was announced http://www.pathsapartproductions.com/media.htm.

In Iraq

After the IOC

International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

 announced that Iraq would be allowed to compete in seven sports at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, including boxing, the United States military, overviewing the new Iraqi Olympic committee, set about to find a new boxing coach for the Iraqi national boxing team. With research, they found out about Watkins' background, and invited him to coach a team of young hopefuls in Baghdad. When Watkins arrived there, he saw what he described to a Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

columnist as not too much talent, but a lot of heart.

Realizing he needed to train the team in a setting different from Baghdad, he moved his team to a city close to Baghdad, but much quieter than the capital city. He trained nine Iraqi boxers who hoped to reach the Olympics, but, out of those, only Najah Ali

Najah Ali

Najah Ali is an Iraqi professional boxer, who was the only Iraqi boxer to qualify for the 2004 Athens, Greece Olympics.-Career:...

 was able to qualify for the games.

During the training

Boxing training

Boxing training is the training method that boxers use in order to get more fit for their sport. This training method is often cited by medical doctors, boxing trainers, and writers as one of the most spartan forms of sports training.- Training :...

period of these young prospects, he invented a phrase that has become widely popular in Iraq: Every morning, after arrival to the gym, he would chant Iraq! Iraq! Iraq is back! to help inspire his boxers. The phrase has become so popular in Iraq that the United States military has ordered 1,000 t-shirts to be printed with the phrase, to be handled among Iraqi citizens.

External links