Tyson vs Witherspoon prime!

While you're at it, please ask him what happened in the Smith fight. If he's consistant with his story, then he should tell you that he was black mailed, as he said to Sean O'Grady in 1989...

 

I like Spoon and happen to think that he was one of the most well rounded HW's of all time. But I don't see him beating a prime Tyson, the styles don't match up in Spoon's favor. He never had a really high workrate, and wasn't a stick and mover like Douglas. Spoon is better than anyone that Tyson faced in his title reign, though. I'd pick Tyson by mid to late KO.

 

Nonsense

 

If a frog had wings his ass would never get dirty.

 

Witherspoon interview

[url]http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=20452&more=1[/url]

On being avoided after the Smith loss, and the sought after Mike Tyson fight that never came off:

"To be honest, I was occupied so much with the business side of boxing - the money side, taking care of my family - that I didn't care too much about who I fought then. I never really thought about a Tyson fight. My mind was gone! No-one was really helping us (Tim and his new team) back then. To be honest, if me and Tyson had fought at that time, he would have won.

 

Peak iron mike with all the right people can't lose.

 

Nice write up. This would be an interesting fight. Tyson was a front runner. Mike never got off the deck to win a fight. He never won a close battle, and seemed to cool off a bit after round five. On the other hand Tyson was a fast starter with dynamic feet, and fists. Getting out of the early rounds with Tyson was not an easy task.

If Witherpsoon was in shape ( He would be for this fight ), there is a chance he becomes the first man to defeat Tyson.

I'd say 65/35 in favor of Tyson.

 

I cant remember these rumours that team Tyson were concerned about Tim Witherspoon.

They had absolutely no reason to even think about Witherspoon, because Tim was dropped from the rankings by the sanctioning bodies following the loss to Smith. He was the last name heavyweight on earth to be concerned about because it was common knowledge that his lawsuit with Don King and his lack of big promotional backing made him an utter irrelevance. He'd been relegated to fighting routine nowhere fights. Even Tim admits he was just taking any fight that came along. And ranked heavyweights had no incentive to fight him because he was unranked by the alphabet crooks.

 

So Don King basically ruined Witherspoons life, and took away all his potential. Sad excuse really.
If you talk to 99% of fighters that have been associated with King they felt in some way they were screwed. Yeah it sucks to fight and not get paid, but this fight was the most important of his career and he didnt show up. Securing the second piece of the unfication series would have most certainly set him up in a better bargaining position as King had to produce title unfication fights in order to keep promoting Tyson's fights. At that time King was not Tyson's promoter. If Witherspoon signed a long term contract with King and then was upset with the terms of it, well shame on him again.
The only way I can side with King on these issues is that he promotes the fights, he has all the ranked fighters, he is protecting his assets by signing and fighting guys against his guys. He gives guys a chance to fight the fighters he has money invested in and get them ranked, and they win a couple fights and expect more and more. When they sign they have nothing and are nothing for the most part.
Look at John Ruiz? King signed him, fought him, got him ranked and gave him title fights fairly quickly after he lost against Tua. Thats what you get with King. Your not going to get paid but your going to get your shot at the title. Fighters that fight for King can lose one title fight and be fighting for another belt in their very next fight.
Look at how long it took Lennox Lewis to get back to the title, and how many King fighters he had to navigate through to get back. Its an ugly part of a game that is not nationally supervised or governed.

 

ok.

 

WITHERSPOON ON THE SMITH FIGHT FROM THE ESB INTERVIEW

But I was told by certain people, that if I didn't take the fight, my career was over! So I thought, to lose is a way to get out and start again with another promoter.


Years ago, Tim told Sean O'Grady that he was actually being blackmailed by king, but that was also before he and King had settled on a lawsuit, as a result from cheated earnings from the Bruno fight. I suspect that he has since recanted his story about being black mailed, but has remained consistant about saying that he threw the fight......

That basically puts the finishing touches on why Spoon lost to Smith in the rematch....