James Quick Tillis

He was an “ ok “ talent and started off as a promising prospect. Good amateur career too. Angelo Dundee was training him up until he lost to Witherspoon and then dumped him. But he never beat a world class opponent. Even an aged shavers had him down once in their 1982 meeting on the undercard of Holmes vs Cooney. The WBA having him ranked # 4 going into the Weaver fight was beyond generous. Today Tillis’s name is commonly brought up on forums when someone is trying to bolster their favorite fighter - “ well he beat Tillis. “

 

Nobody claims beating Tillis is needed to bolster Tyson . In his prime Tyson had many better wins

He needed to go the distance at some point and an in shape and inspired Tillis provided a good test

Tillis was skilled. He had good movement and hand speed.

He did little to earn the shot against Weaver. Granted he moved too much but he showed skill

Losses to Thomas, Page and Witherspoon? Well these were three of the very bast HWys of that era

He dropped Carl Williams twice early but was outhustled

He had Marvis Frazier out on his feet in the second round. Referee Joey Curtis saved Frazier with a standing 8 count

He lost a decision to a comebacking Coetzee than lost decisions to up and coming Biggs and Tyson.

I remember people were saying Tyson struggled with Tillis more than Biggs did so Tyson better watch out. Wrong. Tyson destroyed Biggs .

Tillis was a good fighter who could not beat the top in the he division but except for the Witherspoon massacre always gave a good account of himself and had his moments..until he became a true trial horse around 1987.

 

He beat Terrell, Young, Rocky and Thomas.

Unfortunately it was Harry Terrell not Ernie; Mark Young, not Jimmy; Rocky Lane, not Marciano; and Billy Joe Thomas, not Pinklon.

 

I didn’t mention anything about Tyson. And Alex Stewart lost to a lot of great fighters too but never beat anybody

 

GH, what got Tillis to the title was a 4th round KO of Domingo D'Elia. If you've never heard of him, that's OK. Outside of Argentina, no one else did either, but D'Elia was really being pushed by the WBA and he held a top rating, although no other magazine did. I recall laughing when Bob Arum was going around telling the press that D'Elia was one of the best pure boxers in the world. I saw Tillis KO the Argentine and let me tell ya, the one-two he nailed him with was a sizzler. That was what Tillis had in his arsenal. I saw him drop Page and Williams and hurt/stun Marvis, Biggs and Weaver with that combo. But outside of that I felt he was a lazy fighter who always seemed to gas out.

 

To his credit he DID have very fast hands. I read somewhere that he consumed a lot of eggs during training and had a negative reaction to them. But yeah. He basically went from prospect to fringe to journeyman in a short period

 

The writing on the wall was shown right before the Weaver title fight when he fought the guy in my avatar, Tom Fischer, on an ESPN main event in Chicago. He won 8 or 9 rounds, to be sure, but he took wayyyyy too many right hands and came nowhere near a stoppage over a guy who was 5'9 and probably could've boiled down to Cruiserweight. Not exactly a prophesy for becoming the successor to Larry Holmes, unfortunately. Comparing his performance against Tom to that of Michael Dokes a year later, you can see the difference in pedigree.

 

Domingo was Ring Rated for a time.

 

His book is a decent read.

 

For a few years Tillis only lost to what were realistically top 5 fighters. He was matched bloody hard. He was a sort of 8-15 fighter for a while. Just inside the 10 or not far outside.

I'd hardly hold it against him being dropped by an aging Shavers. Shavers certainly still had the punch. Tillis barely got caught square in the fight excepting that one time and it was a right hand comparable to those that boomed off Holmes and Ali. My god did he wind that up. Tillis landed face first and it's unreal he got up let alone got home to win.

Shavers was on a run of seven wins straight going into Tillis overly mostly very modest opposition.....however he did KO the dangerous Jeff Sims in that lot and stopped Joe Bugner in a round tho Joe had barely fought in years. Quick was mostly dominant except that one monster dong blow.

 

And the going the distance with young Tyson to. Which in its own way was quite impressive, but there are actually some that say he almost beat him.
He gave Tyson a couple of really good rounds for me and that's it.

 

I just saw that now on the year-end ratings. In '78 Ring had him at #10. Must've been a very light year because D'Elia had no wins over anyone even remotely capable of gaining access to the top ten. Unless one is counting the only recognizable names on his record, which were Luis Pires and Raul Gorosito. Two of the most well-chewed journeymen in existence.

 

I have seen worse. At one time in the 70's Ring magazine has Bunny Johnson the 4th rated heavyweight. You are likely thinking who?
Johnson was a more of a journeyman (no insult to journeyman intended) than a contender. He lost to Richard Dunn, Lotte Mwale, Duane Bobick. His biggest wins were Dennis Andries and a worn out Mike Quarry.

 

Those fights came much later, though. What broke Johnson into the world ratings were knockouts over Morris Jackson, Richard Dunn and Danny McAlinden for the British and Commonwealth titles, not to mention his 21 bout winning streak that was also a major factor, albeit over B-level opponents. Of course, #4 is wayyyy inflated as to where he should have landed in the ratings with that kind of CV. I would have said at the bottom of the top ten or just outside. But a top 10 rating for Johnson is far more believable than anything D'Elia did, IMO.