Funny how Spoon and Larry Holmes fans cry out Smith fight was fixed, when film reveals to the naked eye a different story.
It certainly doesnt make sense. Why would it be fixed? It was for a shot at a million bucks against Tyson and possibly winning the undisputed title. Smith simply caught him with a good punch, actually the first punch of the fight, and Spoon never recovered from it. Nothing more nothing less.
A boxer says his devastating and humiliating one-round blitz defeat wasn't legit, so you take that as gospel. atsch
Well, the guy beats the man a year earlier, then shows up for the rematch at what was then a near career high weight, with virtually no signs of interest in his face. He loses in a single round. He then told a commentator a few years later that he was blackmailed. Admitting to being involved in a dive is actually more disgraceful than suffering a legitimate loss, and all fighters know this. Therefore, I don't think that it was face saving that drove him to make his statement. You draw your own conclusion. After years of repeating the facts in an effort to get through to people on this issue, i am finally at the end of my rope.. I'm officially done with this topic.
Yeah, it's the guy who's reputation took a battering with that particular fight. The guy who got his butt spanked on worldwide TV against a guy he should've beat. He's claiming it wasn't legit.
Taking a dive isn't disgraceful when the excuse is to escape from Don King, who we all know was treating Witherspoon like a slave. It's not like Tim is saying he took a dive for a mafia betting scam and made $10 million of it. Tim's the victim. I never held the loss against him though too much, because his mind was blown. There's no escaping the FACT that the right hand that landed a few seconds into the fight most likely rattled his brain badly though.
That's fine. And you could be right. I'm not going to argue. Seems to me that a lot of people here have their mind's made up on the issue, and if it makes life easier to deal with, then so be it. The sad part about it however is that the ones who refuse to listen, are only doing so because they are trying to build a full proof shield against the claim that Tyson ducked Witherspoon, which is not even what anybody is saying. I for one can care less about weather or not the two ever fought, nor what the reasons were. I'm only interested in getting to the truth as it pertains to events that ACTUALLY HAPPENED, and not erecting safe guards against unmade claims.
Same here. I really think the first punch of the fight shook Tim and he was in no condition physically or mentally to cope with Smith's follow-up. The very first punch was for real. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rN8jL3ylPU[/url]
Oh Smith beat the **** out of him. No question about it. But when a challenger is going into the fight of his career with the chance to avenge a loss and take a title in the process, he's gonna go balls out. And of the defending title holder does nothing to defend himself, its gonna be brutal..