80's heavyweight fringe title holders, at their best who had the most potential?

outside of holmes, spinks, tyson and douglas who where all the true heavy weight champions

witherspoon
tate
weaver
smith
coetzee
berbick
page
tubbs
thomas
tucker
dokes

these guys where so evenly matched that many of there amature records are all intertwined with each others names for golden glove, national and world amature titles.

i personally think that pinklon thomas and tony tubbs may be the brightest of the 11 as far a talent. thomas with his outstanding jab and tubbs had very good hand and speed and ring generalship.

witherspoon deffienetly up there as showed great versititility switching stances in his fight with holmes to lose a decision i thought he won.

 

Whitherspoon IMO was the poster boy for the lost generation.

 

witherspoon or page i would say

 

1. Greg Page
2. Witherspoon/Dokes
3. Thomas
4. Tate
5. Weaver

It's a hard task, but my top 3 are secure.

 

Witherspoon I think he could have achieved a lot more had he fulfilled his potential second would probably be Thomas then Page.

 

I thought Tony Tucker should have done more.

 

Calling Dinner and HJ

 

He did get cheated out of two fights for the lineal title against Michael Spinks and George Foreman respectivley.

However these fights would have turned out he should have been given these chances.

 

Almost every member of the lost generation had nearly unlimited potential. They were super heavyweights before that group of fighters became TOO big, most of them having sublime skills to boot.

Look at the hell a ancient Witherspoon did in the 90's. Absolutely demolishing Gonzale, running Ray Mercer close (I had him winning it.)

Then Tubbs goes and does great against the Klitscho's in sparring at well over 40, and in the vein of Witherspoon runs one of the 90's best fighters to a ultra close "lose". Which, again, I had the 80's fighter winning. Tubb's made Riddick Bowe look amateurish.

Almost all of the lost generation fought into the 90's and beyond, and it's a testament to how good they could have been that they raised hell that long past their best. If only they weren't a part of such a lavish, indulgent decade as the 80's.

 

My pick of the list would probably be Witherspoon, Thomas and Page in no particular order.

"Fit, focused and talented", a bit of a shame that after Holmes started going downhill and before Tyson appeared on the scene, Heavyweight Contenders could only seem to be at most 2 out of 3.

 

Witherspoon has to be given the benefit of the doubt as being the best of that bunch. For whatever its worth, he was the division's only two time alpha titlist. He also chalked up a larger number of wins against Quality opponents than did his comtemporary peers. We can go on and on about how politics, drugs and Don King ruined an entire generation of heavyweight talent, in much the same way that Vietnam killed nearly a whole generation of American and Vietnamese men. I have my doubts however about how far some of the others may have gone, but not when it comes to Witherspoon. He had the right style coupled with physical abilities that would have given any fighter a tough time, when well prepared. I have always said and always will, that his second meeting with James Bonecrusher Smith was a fix, and that it was the combined effort of both Don King and the sanctioning bodies who dismantled Spoon's career and essentially black balled him from top contention. People can put whatever spin they want on Tim's story, but at the end of the day, he was a feared man in the division.

 

Greg Page, then Tim Witherspoon, and maybe Pinklon Thomas, or Tony Tubbs. If Tony Tucker hadn't had the drug and knee problems early in his career, then he would be up there too.

 

Tim "The Spoon" Witherspoon had the best potential to become great... However, he was just too lazy.....:rofl

MR.BILL

 

Tony Tucker.


Rock Chin and Great size.

Mediocre everything else though.

Also a coke addiction.

 

You're forgetting good power.