Thomas - Witherspoon, Under Rated Classic

Didn't see the entire Weaver fight. Only the devastating ending. People have been telling me for years to watch the Coetzee fight. Apparently a very good scrap.

 

Most people had not bothered to watch Thomas in his developing years, not compared to Tim anyway. That early Thomas opposition was woeful but the guy definately had tools. And he certainly showed them in The coetzee fight.

But everyone kind of thought of tim as the uncrowned champ of sorts after that Holmes fight. Better than Dokes or Page and Pinky was just outside of that group f elite up and comers.

I thought going in Thomas was a live underdog. His style was not going to accommodate Tim and, I thought anyway, his stiff jab was going to be a bigger problem than the kind of jab Holmes threw at him. I thought Tim would acknowledge the punch, if you will, and not look to fire over it.

It kind of played out that way and that was a decision bout all the way the day the contract was signed. Both guys at the time were far too resilient to have the other guy stop them, aside from cuts.

But aside from Holmes, all of those guys back then could look real sharp for about 2 fights in a row. Then, it was flat. Thomas didn't look as good in that Weaver fight and even that bout took a long time to make. To rest is to rust and those 80's heavies could rust in 30 days, let alone long spells of inactivity.

So what happened after Pinky decisioned Witherspoon was everyone was all in on Thomas. It just seemed like a poker game with those heavies back then where it was always a case of pushing in all the chips to the center of the pot, as far as public sentiment was concerned. Always for all the chips, and never a small %. They'd love a guy based on 1 fight result. And it'd be all the chips in the pot going into that guy's next fight.

 

That whole era of alternate champions to Larry Holmes churned up champion after champion after champion. The only guy who fought for a belt not worn by Holmes who did not wind up winning a title was Quick Tillis. Every one else did. Bonecrusher, Berbick everybody. I almost think that had marvis Frazier challenged for another belt he could have won a title. Everyone else did! Leon Spinks and Renaldo Snipes even. Who knows? They were good enough.

 

When you watch fights like this you realise this much maligned era was full of fighters with ability compared to todays dross.

 

Weaver-Coetzee is a good scrap, but I found myself getting irritated with Coetzee's stalling tactics, holding Weaver against the ropes so he could rest so often in the later rounds. Made the ending that much more satisfying. Coetzee shot his wad in that wild eighth round. The fight should also show that Weaver didn't necessarily buckle and cave against all hard punchers. He took a lot from a hard hitter in Coetzee and had what it took to get him out of there late.

I always liked Weaver and found him underrated.