Background
Nicknamed Termite, he was born into a family that was in the insect killing business, and he is a professional fumigator.
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Maurice Watkins
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Career
Foreign the Director of the Manchester United"s football board, see Maurice Watkins (solicitor)
Professional Boxing Watkins turned professional as a boxer on May 21, 1974, beating Cesar Cortez by knockout in round one at Houston. Through his career, Watkins fought some of the best fighters in the Lightweight and Junior. 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 by knockout in three, Bobby Rodriguez by knockout in one, and others
He also lost to Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Junior. and Alfredo Escalera. On October 2 of 1980, at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, he got his only world title shot, losing to Saoul Mamby by a fifteen round decision for the WBC"s world Junior.
Welterweight title. He retired with 61 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws (tie), one no contest and 42 wins by knockout.
After retiring, Watkins went back to Texas to work as a fumigator. He remained in obscurity there for many years.
In 2003, the American military, needing personnel to work rebuilding Iraq"s infrastructure, contracted him as a fumigator to work on Iraqi homes that had been decaying and infected with insects during Saddam Hussein"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 Watkins.
Also in 2008, a movie based on the book was announced. After the International Olympic Committee 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 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 was able to qualify for the games.
During the 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.
