Hollywood Awaits Termite From Texas and Iraqi Fly

What an inspirational story: former world title contender becomes used car salesman in Texas, becomes rattlesnake killer, becomes pest exterminator in Baghdad, becomes boxing coach of Iraq and self-proclaimed "saviour" of that troubled nation. It is hardly any wonder that Maurice "Termite" Watkins will be coming to a cinema screen near you soon, courtesy of Bruce Willis, or possibly John Travolta or, who knows, maybe even Hugh Grant - Watkins declined yesterday to be specific.

"Once the Olympics are over, I have to go home to my family in Texas and make a very big decision. I've had three movie offers for the story of my life, two from Hollywood, one from London. It is my job to decide which one to accept," he said in a fleeting moment of coyness.

Behind him in the practice ring Najah Ali, the only member of the Iraqi national boxing team taking part in Athens, is warming up for his flyweight contest against a Korean, Hyok Ju Kwak. Ali is 24 but looks much younger; a skinny kid with wide, dark eyes. In the run-up to the Olympics he had seven warm-up fights, winning two. He did not qualify by right and only got here courtesy of a special invite from the IOC. Ask him if he will win today's fight and he laughs: "No."

Still, at least Ali has a bit part in the life story of Maurice Watkins. He plays the guy who gets punched in the face a lot by a handy-looking Korean while his publicity-hungry coach talks the ears off journalists. "He's gonna win this fight, and then we'll see what happens after that. There are some very good judges who have seen this kid fight who think he has got a very good chance of winning a medal," Watkins said, sounding like a cut-price Don King.

Sorry Termite, but anyone who knows anything about amateur boxing knows Najah Ali will not win a medal, not unless the IOC is giving them out for bravery. He is not strong enough and he does not have enough experience. Not that it seems to trouble the boxer's coach, who has another story to tell. His own.

Watkins went to Iraq just after the fall of Saddam. He was selling cars one day, he says, when he had a calling from God. "I knew it was time for me to go to Iraq and do my part to help the Coalition. I went home and told my wife. She put her hand up to her ear and told me 'You're crazy. I don't hear anyone calling'. I told her that I felt like I could save Iraq, and she told me that no one person can save a country."

So off he went to Baghdad, taking up a contract to exterminate the flies that were plaguing the officers' mess at US military headquarters.

Six months later, though, he had a new job. Over breakfast with a representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he mentioned that he once fought for a world title - on the undercard of the 1980 Larry Holmes versus Muhammad Ali heavyweight bout - and that he wanted to work with local boxers. "The idea was that if we put a team together it would give the Iraqi people something. It would restore national pride."

Within days, Watkins and 24 of Iraq's best fighters were holed up in a gym on the outskirts of Baghdad. Over the next six months they travelled to China and Pakistan in an effort to qualify for the Olympics. They all failed, which was when the coach was told to pick one fighter who would receive the IOC's special invitation. He chose Ali. "He had the desire and the talent, and I love his gutsiness."

The pair then travelled to the United States, where they trained with the American boxing team at the US Olympic Committee's athletics centre in Colorado. In Michigan, a group of Iraqi-Americans watched the fighter work out, then took him to dinner and gave him training shoes and department store vouchers. Everywhere they went, Watkins and Ali wore T-shirts proclaiming "Iraq is back". It was heart-warming stuff and the American media, which is under enormous pressure from the White House to start telling "good news" about Iraq, lapped it up.

By his own estimation, Maurice Watkins has done "hundreds and hundreds" of interviews over the past few weeks. In all of them, he has never missed the chance to promote the line that Iraq is returning to "normality" after the American invasion and the fall of Saddam. He did it again yesterday.

"I just want to spread the message that things aren't as bad in Iraq as you folks in the media think it is. Maybe 10% of what's going on is bad, but the other 90% is great. Thousands of kids are going to new schools, their parents are going to work, people are walking up to American soldiers in the street and telling them 'Thank you, thank you for setting us free'."

With the big fight just a few hours away, Watkins probably had a lot on his mind, so he might be forgiven for missing the latest news from Iraq: mortar bomb hits downtown Baghdad, seven killed and more than 30 wounded.