Iron Mike Tyson vs Terrible Tim Witherspoon, Prime For Prime

Great points here. I do feel Larry started declining after Cobb, but as you said he still would have given any heavyweight of the day a very, very hard time. And I personally thought the fight against Tim was one of Larry's greatest, as he proved his incredible heart and endurance yet again...I never had Tim less than two points behind Holmes in the dozens of times I've watched that (at times wildly entertaining) fight.

But I do feel Tim had peaked there, he got himself up as much as he could because winning the title against a seemingly unbeatable, 5 years champ would have been the jewel in pretty much any fighter's crown in 1983.

To me the fact that Tim was able to neutralize Larry's jab but not Pinklon's was ample testimony to Tim's not being as up for that fight. True, this was peak Thomas...but I'm not convinced how much better Pinky's jab was compared to Larry's even at that stage. Thomas had a really good left, but even the declining Holmes still had probably the best jab in the division at the time of the Witherspoon fight. I mean, I'll give Pinky the edge here due to youth, but not a whole lot.

Just my opinion: Time got WAY up for Holmes, and he never seemed to quite get that way again (which in some ways is understandable imo. Kind of like Bowe against Holy I, though Bowe seemed to decline more sharply).

 

I think it's a littleharsh to say Witherspoon was ever really up for one fight and it is taking some credit away from Thomas's great performance against him. You can see Witherspoon trying to establish momentum against Thomas but just about every time he had strong moments Thomas came back hard as if to prove a point. It wasn't just the jab - Witherspoon had Holmes in serious trouble for a bit where as his best punches didn't faze the rock jawed Thomas who had one of the best chins you'd ever see before declining. Witherspoon was reduced to winding up on homerun efforts late in the fight as he just couldn't crack
Thomas's code. Dundee had huge wraps on the Thomas jab too.

Weaver gave Holmes a torrid evening too and Snipes had him in big trouble. I'm not convinced it's a case of all these guys fighting out of their skin against Holmes. Quite a few guys got to Holmes and perhaps the biggest difference was he always wanted it more and dug deeper. His heart and determination was perhaps his biggest attribute even when considering his sterling jab and accurate cross etc. In the real world Larry didn't just jab his way to easy victories fight after fight - he had to dig deep quite a few times.

 

As you intimated, that latter factor might have been the most pertinent in establishing him as a top 5 ATG.

 

It's a quality that can make all the difference. Guys like Holmes, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Marciano, they had it in spades.

 

I would put Louis in this conversation as well. He more than proved his heart throughout his career, but much like Ali (FOTC), never moreso than in a losing effort.

 

Agree 100%. I was just keeping it short but the list does indeed go on Swag.

 

My apologies. Knew something was wrong when you omitted Cleve!

 

Exactly! Wasn't half obvious

 

Tyson KO in 6