Tim Witherspoon (Mercer) vs Corrie Sanders (Vitali) both 38

They’re both 38 in this fight, but we’re both still quality at that point.

Who wins this matchup?

 

Witherspoon IMO.

Sanders was coming off a lay off and was not in the best of shape vs Vitali.

Witherspoon hits harder than Vitali with single punches especially with the overhand right.

I think it's an exciting fight whilst it lasts but Witherspoon stops Sanders in 7-8 rounds.

Witherspoon has the better defence and is more durable overall. And he find a home with his right hand and get Sanders out of there eventually.

 

The Vitali version of Sanders looked like a ****ing beached whale. I was expecting him to come in lean and mean but it looks like he trained with Dustin Nichols I wouldn't write him off because he still had bombs in his punches but a lot of guys are going to pick Tim and I understand why. Now if we get the Wlad version then I am sure Sanders wins.

 

I was at the Vitali fight. You’re just gonna have to trust me that he’d smoke an old Witherspoon.

 

No way Witherspoon hits harder than Vitali. Not a chance. Agreed with most of the rest of what you said.

I still pick Sanders via KO/TKO (not very confident).

 

Witherspoon had a harder right hand than Vitali.

Vitali was an arm puncher but a heavy handed arm puncher who had very good workrate for a big man and that's how he got his opponents out of there.

Vitali wasn't getting full bodyweight into his punches like Witherspoon did with his overhand right.

And remember Nate Tubbs got Sanders out of there with the same punch.

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Sanders feet and hands were way faster than an old Witherspoon's and he had a size advantage too. Witherspoon would get smoked.

 

Not really much of a size advantage.

Sanders was 1 inch taller.

Witherspoon had a 1 reach advantage.

Witherspoon was 230 pounds vs Mercer.

Sanders was 238 pounds vs Vitali.

But the extra weight wasn't beneficial for Sanders because he was out of shape.

I see Witherspoon landing the overhand right and winning by stoppage.

 

I’m talking about looking at him. He was just a genuinely big guy. There is absolutely nothing Witherspoon could do in this fight to avoid being drilled. That’s why Corrie was able to drill both K bros, neither of whom were easy targets. Tim wouldn’t like that at all. He had enough trouble getting avoiding Jimmy Thunder’s punches. You’re overrating him.

 

Sanders couldn't put away Rahman and got 1 shotted by Nate Tubbs.

Sanders was only briefly rated a top 10 Heavyweight where as Witherspoon was rated amongst top 10 for a decade.

I think you're overrating Sanders for some reason you seem to think highly of him when he didn't do that much against notable Heavyweights.

Witherspoon was still in good enough form in 1996 beat the out of shape semi retired Sanders.

 

Maybe you should do Nate Tubbs fantasy fights. You apparently think he was better than Sanders.

Tim wasn’t beating fast guys with big power in the mid 90s. He was getting owned by Golota and doing okay against Mercer who was a chronic underperformer.

There’s absolutely nothing he had to keep from getting drilled.

I find it odd that you think more highly of him than a champion when he didn’t even earn a title shot.

 

I don't think Nate Tubbs is necessarily better than Sanders but it does show Sanders getting 1 shotted by an unremarkable opponent and it shows a glaring weakness.

Sanders also couldn't put away Rahman despite hitting him with everything but the kitchen sink who Maskaev managed to put away twice.

The thread states Witherspoon at 38 years old yes ? So why are you bringing up fights when he was 40 years old ? Clearly there's quite a difference.

Mercer was coming off two close fights vs Holyfield, Lewis, many people consider Witherspoon/Mercer a bad decision so I'd rate it better than just ok.

I find it odd you are so confident in a fighter with virtually no resume against notable Heavyweights outside of 1 win. And who was only was only briefly rated in the top 10 despite boxing professional for like 15 years.

 

Peak Rahman would beat an old Witherspoon.

Tim didn’t do that much in the 90s. He beat JLG who turned out to be journeyman level, had a close fight with Mercer which doesn’t mean much if know about Mercer’s career, and beat Cole who went on to serve as fodder for Sanders. The guy who fought Thunder, Golota, and Donald wasn’t much different.

Sanders was still world class in his mid to late thirties and would batter Tim, who didn’t even fight southpaws.

 

Again we're talking about specific versions of each fighter.

Sanders was coming off a lay off and was out of shape.

Witherspoon was still in solid enough form vs Mercer and had been undefeated for 4 years.

If Witherspoon weather's the early storm there's no reason to think he couldn't win vs an out of shape Sanders.

 

So we can compare common opponents if we're going to dredge up the past. Let's watch the footage:

Witherspoon barely scraped by Mike Williams:

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Sanders nuked Mike Williams from orbit:

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Witherspoon went 10 long rounds for a points win over James Pritchard.

Sanders obliterated James Pritchard with ease:

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Witherspoon went 10 rounds with Al Cole for a points decision

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Sanders didn't have time for all that pitty pat nonsense and took care of business in the first round so he could hit the golf course

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It's obvious that Corrie has a clear advantage if we contrast how he and Tim did against common opponents. Guys who were competitive along the distance with Witherspoon looked out of their depth entirely against Sanders.