He is a bit before my time, and whenever I hear mention of him it is about his boring performance against Mike Tyson. I have seen a little bit of him, and he didn't seem to be as bad as everybody says. How good was he? Thanks.
Bonecrusher got off to a late start in boxing; turning pro at 28 and winning a title at 33. I would rank Smith somewhere behind Oliver McCall, and above Ernie Shavers.
.................Bonecrusher was an interesting fella. He had a regular job as a prison guard, and was a college graduate, one of the few champs to have that kind of background. Truth be told, he never really had the head for fighting. Perhaps THE most consistently boring fighter I have ever seen, Crusher was slow as molasses, but had terrific power in the right hand. That much was legit. The rest of him was painfully average.
Big, strong guy who could crack and take a pretty good shot. Wasn't a skilled fighter technically. Say what you want about him, but he beat some good fighters: Frank Bruno, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Weaver twice, and he fought everybody. Always came in in-shape and gave a good effort which is more than what you can say for several more talented fighters of that era. He had nothing in the way of speed/reflexes to deal with Tyson. Not a great effort, but he has too many good efforts to dismiss him on that one.
.............Eeehhhh..........I take issue with the idea he always gave his best. Watch the Marvis Frazier fight. That was just one example; his career was littered with ten round decision losses, many of which were lost due to lethargy.
when people describe all the qaulity's that heavyweights have that most lowerweights dont poses...bonecrusher emulates it. the average typical slow, plodding, BIG puncher low workrate low movement. [yt]P-Coa7n_Q_I[/yt]
I find it ironic how everyone calling smith mediocre has yet to comment on the terrific performance bonecrusher put on holmes. only a 14-1 novice, bonecrusher had holmes in trouble during there bout and gave him all he could handle. bonecrusher was a basket case. after the loss to tubs, he went into depression and he had to hire a shrink to get him through fights, but it paid off in the end as he knocked out tim witherspoon in 1 to win the title at age 34.
Bonecrusher like most fighters was human hence inconsistent. He was also limited to the style he was up against. He was a big, very strong guy with a big punch and an iron chin. If in shape he had decent stamina ... He came into prominence with a come from behind tenth round televised ko over then highly hyped and undefeated Frank Bruno. He then got a shot at a 35 year old Holmes who was carefully selecting opponents at that point in his career. Their fight got interesting when Holmes suffered a bad cut , one that actually threatened him with his first professional loss in a fight he was clearly winning. Bonecrusher became motivated and Holmes needed to use all the skills he had left to stop an exhausted Bonecrusher late in the fight. Bonecrusher bounced around the division for a while, winning some, losing some. He was pounded by Tim Witherspoon , taking a terrific beating and showed huge heart and a great chin by surviving ... A wile later as fate would have it he was a last second substitute to fight Witherspoon in a rematch when Tubbs failed a drug test. In a huge upset, the overconfident Witherspoon got caught with the first punch Bonecrusher threw and never recovered. He was bounced off the floor three times and the fight was stopped ... Bonecrusher became a slice of a champion ... At the time Tyson was huge, had destroyed Berbick and as part of HBO's title unification circus, his next opponent was Smith. The hype of two huge punchers meeting was big and the fight had a buzz of excitement . Unfortunately it was a stinkeroo ... Tyson came to fight and Bonecrusher, once he realized what he was up against, put on a terrible display of survival fighting, hugging for his life. It destroyed much of the good faith he had earned through the Bruno, Holmes and Witherspoon fights and from that time on was never a serious contender again. He regressed as an attraction and drifted into obscurity. Bonecrusher was a nice guy, a big strong heavyweight, had a hell of a chin, was bright and likeable ... he ws limitied and his career shows it.
Half the guys Holmes fought were novices who gave him a hard time, and other gave him far tougher fights than Bonecrusher did (ie: Weaver, Witherspoon, Williams, etc.). Having said that, the way I would describe Bonecrusher was as a dangerous journeyman. His main claim to fame is that he pulled off a huge upset win over Tim Witherspoon late in his career, when he came in as a late sub (and had already lost once before to Tim). That also turned out to be Bonecrusher's last hurrah.