Quite a lot has come up about these two bouts recently. Let's poll opinion. Two very......very close ones. Were the judges correct in their verdict ? By my reckoning,Holmes shaded the Witherspoon one but lost the Williams defence - Just as closely.
I had Williams up by 3 rounds, watched that a few week ago. Haven't watched Witherspoon-Holmes for awhile now, just know it was close.
The Witherspoon bout, I had it 5-4-3 for Tim. But it's a close fight, Tim should have finished Holmes when he had the chance, instead he let the champion walk away from a real bad situation and Larry got right back into the fight.
I had Holmes winning both. Just. In a non title fight you could expect these decisions to go either way but titles should not change hands on these kinds of fights. Too close, no dominance shown by either fighter. In both fights I felt you had to give all the even and close rounds to the challenger to score them a win. Where as If the champion was awarded only a fair share of the close and even rounds he wins. you just cant do that with a title at stake just because a champion struggles does not mean he was bested. Witherspoon was a surprise because nobody could outbox Holmes up until that point. He also hurt Larry but did not press a lead at any point. Witherspoon just did not win more rounds than Holmes did. Larry was always there with him and no fighter had a clear edge, in fact Holmes was busiest when Tim looked to coast. That's what cost spoon the title IMO. If I remember rightly Williams was ahead by a full shut out after 5 rounds,then there were 5 closer rounds. However, Williams faded to the point where Homes was level by the championship rounds and Larry finished stronger.
I'm always intrigued at how many people feel Tim won (or should have)... I watched this fight not long ago and Holmes won. Easily. I watched Tim trudge forward, eating punches, not capitalizing on the only chance he had mid-rounds as he hurt Larry (seemingly) and proceeded to do exactly nothing about it, then lose a decision that, on my cards, was about 8-4 for Holmes, at best 4 rounds for Tim... I'm curious to know why people scored it so favorably for Tim...
I felt Holmes beat Witherspoon rather clearly though it was a good fight and Witherspoon gave him a very good challenge. Williams on the other hand I thought beat Holmes slightly I scored the bout the other day and had it 8-6-1 in favor of Williams though I don't consider it a travesty or even a robbery that Holmes got the decision there were many close rounds. Boy in that fight the Truth looked great he really seemed like a sure future champ but a couple bad losses discouraged him and it was downhill from there.
Haven't seen the Williams fight so I can't comment on that one, but that Witherspoon fight really seems like such an obvious clear win for Holmes, its just crazy to hear so many people think otherwise....
I too have not seen the Williams fight in many years but I felt the Witherspoon fight was a clear win for Holmes. Witherspoon was game and pressed the action but was outboxed and outpunched by a fairly wide margin.
If they were fights between fighters no one knew about, you'd say Williams won clearly and maybe Witherspoon got edged at the end.
Can someone shed light on the Witherspoon-Williams fight? Was it an exciting fight and did Tim deserve to take the decision?
Holmes edged Witherpsoon. I have scored it before, and Timmy just did not do enough in the early rounds.
I agree. I had Holmes winning 9 rds. and he actually closes the 9th better tham tim after stunning him w the right
Holmes got out jabbed by Williams who had an excellent jab and skills over all. A real fluid puncher from body to head as well. You don't see contenders like him in this day and age.
