Prime Mike Tyson vs. Prime Vitali Klitschko

Don King controlled the division around this time. The only fighter he didnt have a long term deal with was Tyson. King put the tournament together and every fighter Tyson faced leading up to the tournament and in the tournament was a King promoted managed fighter. If King was so confident that Spoon could beat Tyson he would have definitely tried to work out his differences with him, because Tyson was beating everyone of his fighters and he was losing control of the titles.
Spoon sued King which really wasnt settled until the 90's when he made his comeback. I think Witherspoon should have kept winning until his contract expired with King. I think looking back he would probably agree, because he didnt do much in his comeback and lost a lot of years on the shelf.

 

The reason Spoon sued King was because for one of his fights King "accidentally" put a decimal in the wrong place so Spoon ended up with £7k for a fight rather than £70k, or something like that. Its in Tysons biography by Peter Heller.

 

Don King ****ed all his fighters, but some were more interested in fighting for the titles and partying with King and his cronies than making money. These guys were making peanuts but they wouldnt have made much more fighting for rival promoters because King gave them a shot at glory. King is the one who revolutionized the payscale in boxing, but he felt he needed to make the majority of the money because of it. A lot of people make fun of the 80's fighters, but those guys were still interested in the titles more than the money, and thats why King was able to get away with **** he has no chance with in todays game.

 

Come on really :verysad
Spoon would have had his shot at Tyson had he not been KNOCKED OUT by Bonecrusher Smith, who Tyson than fought for the WBA. After that fight Spoon fought on and off for the next few years against no one of any note.

Bottom line is that Tim Witherspoon did virtually nothing during the late 80's to warrant a title shot. Even just a quick tour through boxrec shows that much

 

King had a very strong grip and quite a monopoly on the Division, this began to change once he lost Tyson, Lewis tended not to do business with King and since then hes not had anyone of note. Hes got David Haye and thats about it.

 

It caused the cut that stopped the fight.

 

There were couple of shady deals when Lewis dropped WBA and IBF belts to King-controlled Ruiz and Byrd.

 

-Vitali would be favored. Especially against fatty Spoon, one fight away from getting blown out by Smith. Spoon was moving like a snail in that fight, and Bruno had no stamina.

-Against worse stiffs than Vitali. You can hate on Fat Peter, Sanders, Arreola, Gomez..but they had more live than washed up LeDoux, washed up Coetzee, washed up Tillis, and ancient Joe Bugner. Those wins are about on par with Vitali's shut out of Briggs, hell, I would even put Briggs over them. Bruno's only good win was a shaky decison over a coked out McCall.

-Many lesser fighters did. This is how chubby Mercer and Marovicwhatever get so overrated.

 

Most likely yes
but i dont see Lennox losing to Huggy bear Ruiz and Byrdy

 

Thats your opinion, but I dont agree with it. Vitali has not shown enough to say he would have been as successful in the 80's. Sure he might be favored now, but who knows how he would have done. I suspect a lot of those guys would be able to exploit Vitalis weaknesses. As much as Vitali cant fight, the contenders of today are just as bad, so he really has it easy as far as being able to dictate the temp of a fight.

 

Bruno was crap.

 

So is Vitali. Bruno is as good a boxer as Vitali is. Brawling wouldnt even be a factor in the fight.

 

Vitali took a punch a lot better.

 

Not really. Who is comparable to Smith and Spoon that Vitali fought as far as punching power? Maybe Peter, but Smith was probably a better boxer than Peter setting up his righthand. Comparing Lewis, maybe he reacted better but whats the difference between freezing and getting stopped or getting your face ripped to pieces?
Regardless in a fight between them I suspect Vitali, like he does in all his fights, would choose to box from the outside. If that was the case, I think Bruno would be very competitive with him. Maybe Bruno couldnt beat a guy like Sam Peter because he gets nailed, but in this kind of matchup Bruno has a very good shot at winning.

 

The fit game Spoon that beat up Holmes would be interesting against Vitali. The sluggish Spoon who went against Bruno and got crushed by Smith...just another fatty who didn't give himself a chance.