Thanks to [url]Nick_M's Classic Boxing Channel[/url] "Sorry for the bad quality. One of the rare 80's Heavyweight fights." This content is protected Great upload. Haven't seen this on youtube before. Quality is poor but it's 100 times better than nothing. Witherspoon in 1983 was a beast.
Great post .. Witherspoon was a hell of a fighter when focused .. he lacked the mental strength to survive Don King .. prime and motivated he was by far the best heavyweight between Holmes and Tyson ..
It certainly tells us how good Pinklon Thomas was at the time too. I've actually been looking for this for a while. Uber rare. One report at the time attributed Tillis slipping in the water left in the corner as a contributing factor. Whilst we can see clearly plenty of water in the corner and Tillis slip it had no bearing on the fight. Witherspoon caught him early and overpowered him.
Witherspoon pole axed him with those two right hands! I was initially surprised Pete let him continue after that seemingly slow 10 count, honestly.
Great find and just goes to show what could have been for Witherspoon, had the ability to dominate the 80's era.
That Witherspoon right hand was something else. So much promise as a fighter. And by all accounts, a nice guy.
Tillie simply got caught with a huge right hand and never recovered. Tillis could still fight so it was very impressive. Tillis would go on to lose decisions to several top 10 fighters but would not be stopped again till 87 by Frank Bruno, when his reflexes were sliding.
There was a time that Terrible Tim was considered the fighter with the best chance of upsetting Mike Tyson.
Not really. It is like saying a motivated Buster Douglas would be a threat to anybody because he beat Mike Tyson. Styles make fights. Various fighters would stop Tim Witherspoon no matter what "mood" he was in.