The 80s are the most criminally underrated era in HW history

Whatever it is, these criminals need to be caught and brought to justice.

 

When a fighter is looking to throw a fight, he doesn't sit there and pick and choose what shots he's going to get hit with, especially if he's counting on a short evening. Smith decked Spoon three times and knocked out a tooth, which is something I don't think Tim planned for.. But I seriously doubt that he'd take the risk of slandering a powerful man like Don King and publicly say that he was black mailed on public television if his claims weren't true. And everything leading up to the actual event plays right along with the story. He was quarreling constantly with Don and Carl King over earnings and then showed up totally deconditioned and unmotivated against a man he had soundly beaten a year before to fall in one round.. Years after the affair he's consistently held to the claim that he took a dive.... I don't see anything complicated about it which requires in depth argument or investigation. Some fights in boxing are fixed. The concept is as old as the sport itself.

 

I don't know looks like Wilder and Malik Scott had it mapped out.
All I'm saying is the punch looks like it landed clean and that Witherspoon didn't see it and was hurt by it. Perhaps after being hit with it he said F this I don't even really want to win and basically bottled it.
Also he may stick to the story maybe to him- a dive - is a better than a first round knockout.

 

Don King didn't "screw" Tony Tucker on his paycheck with Tyson. It was well documented, including on the Tyson-Tucker telecast before the fighters stepped in the ring, that Tony Tucker's father had signed his son with so many people - including Dennis Rappaport, Emanuel Steward, Shelly Finkel, etc. - that everyone was getting a big cut of Tucker's purse.

Tucker himself, before the Lewis fight, said the "pie" graphic HBO showed before his bout with Tyson explaining all the people getting huge chunks of Tucker's check is what caused his depression that led him to abuse drugs.

Also, what people don't know or choose to ignore is that most of the guys considered to be "failures" during that time, like Tony Tubbs and Tony Tucker, had signed deals when they were amateurs with Harold Fields, who had embezzled all that money from Wells Fargo Bank. And, even when they were amateurs, Tubbs and Tucker and other members of that Muhammad Ali Boxing Team that Fields ran walked around with huge rolls of cash and drove nice cars. Tubbs was supposed to be Fields' big heavyweight, and Tubbs in particular got lazy right out of the gate after turning pro because he was making big money fighting nobodies.

Some people have the idea that Don King cheated all those 80s heavyweights, and that's why they were so hot and cold and underachieved -- because they were so depressed. :roll:

The truth is, particularly with Tony Tubbs, that he was so "spoiled" and was so highly paid as an amateur and as a young pro by Harold Fields that he never dedicated himself. It was all cars, coke and money ... even when he was supposed to be an amateur.

 

I don't believe Witherspoon "threw" the Smith fight. I think he came in out of shape, got hammered, got his front tooth knocked out, and simply decided he didn't want to fight anymore that night.

Sort of like how Buster Douglas got hit by Holyfield and just looked like he didn't want to fight anymore.

There's a difference between planning to take a dive, and just deciding when you're in there that you just don't feel like putting up the effort.

I have Tim Witherspoon's biography. The guy is a total mess. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he was mentally disabled (or, as they'd say years ago, re****ed). His stories are all over the place. And, if you read his book, it's everyone else's fault when he loses a fight.

In his book, he even blames Dennis Rappaport for his loss to Bigfoot Martin. Because, Witherspoon says Rappaport was trying to hype a fight between Spoon and Michael Moorer, and during the hype Rappaport insulted the state of Michigan. And since Witherspoon fought Martin in Michigan, the Michigan judges decided to punish Tim.

There's no mention that he didn't train, and he fought like ****, and got outhustled by Martin. It was all Rappaport's fault for insulting Michigan.

**** like that.

After reading that book, I could see why Don King felt like ripping off Tim Witherspoon. The guy is eternally ungrateful for EVERYTHING. He'll talk openly about using drugs, not training, cheating on his wife, not feeling like fighting, quitting in the ring ... and then turn around and blame someone for him feeling like that. He never owns anything. Rappaport invested his own money in Witherspoon, got him TV fights, was building a momentum to get him some big fights ... while Witherspoon gets stoned and doesn't train, and then Spoon blames Rappaport when he loses.

If you like Tim Witherspoon, don't read it. You won't like him afterward.

 

Definitely underrated in terms of talent, but that talent was terribly inconsistent.
It is a decade of "on their best night" scenarios. It was an era when all the worst aspects of boxing came together. Politics, big money, drugs and a lack of any regulating of health and well being.
As an aside it was also the first time an African born fighter captured a heavyweight strap.

 

You have a point here.

It was an era totally stacked with talent, but they all seemed to misfire at the highest level.

As you say it would have been a real meat grinder, for any contender trying to get to a title shot.

 

Coetzee?:think

 

Indeed

 

I don't have all of the specifics, but Tucker was having problems with King and not fighting after the Tyson fight.

 

Well put. An unprecedented gauntlet of big, agile, skilled fighters.

 

yeah, that's why I don't read many books about boxers :bbb

 

Witherspoon only got paid 90 thousand dollars when he defended is title in England against Bruno. Bruno got paid 900 thousand.

 

King also murdered 2 people and got away with it scot free.

I think Spoon didn't necessarily take a dive, I believe King probably had a quiet word with him before the fight, then Spoon took that right hand and basically though screw it, what's the point of getting up. It was a lose lose situation for him.

I think Tyson also mentioned in a documentary that King basically filled up his head with so much ****, including telling him that The Jews are looking to put the black race into concentration camps so 'us blacks' need to stick together.

Speaking of towels, there's a fantastic and disgusting story about Wilfred Benitez and his short stay at Catskills during Tysons time there. I did post it a few years ago, not sure if the thread is still around.