The unbelievable boxing tale of Maurice ‘Termite’ Watkins: from Muhammad Ali’s undercard to Baghdad

Watkins coached the Iraq boxing team at the Athens Olympics

Somehow, Watkins got the Iraqi Boxing Federation back up and running in 2003 (AFP/Getty )

It is hard to invent a boxer like Maurice “Termite” Watkins and what he achieved in and out of the ring.

Watkins fought for a world title in Las Vegas, caught rats in Texas, dodged bombs in Baghdad and took Iraq’s one-man boxing team to the Athens Olympics in the summer of 2004.

Right now, Watkins is still waiting for George Clooney to play him in a movie adaptation of his remarkable life on both sides of the ropes. And it is mostly all true. Some versions have Brad Pitt as Termite and Sylvester Stallone directing. I’m not inventing this.

In 1980, outdoors in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, Watkins lost over 15 rounds to Saoul Mamby for the WBC light welterweight title. It was the chief supporting fight to Muhammad Ali’s losing bid to regain the heavyweight championship of the world from Larry Holmes. Those are impressive facts and all true. Watkins fought a total of 69 times as a professional, winning 61 of those fights.

After boxing, he went full-time in the pest control business in Texas and that is how he landed in Baghdad at some point in 2003. It was bloody and dangerous work. The rats were enormous, the risk to life from a sniper and a bomb even more serious. I genuinely thought that Watkins was called the “pest man” as part of his CIA cover. What did I know?

Somehow, Watkins got the Iraqi Boxing Federation back up and running. He had some help from the British army, he got permission to meet, permission to train the fighters; it all looked like it was government-funded. It turns out, it just might have been Watkins doing something good and putting his life in jeopardy.

Maurice ‘Termite’ Watkins leads a cheer with the Iraqi boxers (Getty)

At some point in early 2004, with the Athens Olympics a distant dream, Watkins and his team drove out of Iraq through Kuwait. It was not an easy passage and Watkins lost five of his seven boxers; they looked like wanted men and were lifted at the border. It was simple and brutal. He somehow landed at the Fitzroy Lodge gym in south London in April and that is where I met him.

He was a pest controller, he had fought for a world title, he was certainly eccentric, and he was not part of the CIA. “Iraq is Back”, it said on the tracksuits that Watkins and his fighters wore at the Lodge. In the end, Watkins was given a wildcard entry to the Athens Olympics and he selected Najah Ali.

In Athens in August of 2004, Ali beat a North Korean and then lost. That is still a remarkable achievement. “We did it,” Watkins said. Sure, it was a nice publicity stunt, but it was also a dream for little Najah and Termite.

After Athens, it all gets a bit crazy. Termite goes back to killing rats and is still doing it. Ali turned professional in Britain and was often known as Little Ali.

He fought a total of 10 times and last fought in 2013. The tales of Ali include running a kebab shop and driving taxis in the Welsh valleys. It’s hard to invent this stuff.

Watkins is in Texas now and is a genuine expert on termites. That is the absolute truth.

‘Around The World in 80 Fights: A Lifetime’s Journey to the Heart of Boxing’ by Steve Bunce is published on 12 September by Headline