Fighters like Biggs, Williams or Ruddock could've been the next great heavyweight if not for Tyson. We'll never know.
Cocaine. Cocaine was what went wrong with Biggs. Oh and everyone here nailed it. Biggs had more talent. Williams worked harder.
I think we can all agree that Biggs was the more talented fighter but Williams simply worked harder and in practice did more. If they fought as professionals I'd pick Williams depending on when they fought. If feels as though Biggs was thrown to the sharks pretty early and never properly developed and had the misfortune of his opponents showing up to their level best whenever they faced him.
This is an interesting idea, one that makes me watch to rewatch some of their fights. I think I kind of dismissed Williams after Weaver made him look like such an unprepared loser. And Tyson made him look almost as bad. At least Tyrell hung in there for awhile. That said, Weaver and Tyson both had great shots (Weaver of course being bizarrely less consistent).
Unfortunately Biggs struggled with cocaine and alcohol abuse and was in and out of rehab throughout his entire boxing career. From what I understand he was already a functioning addict in the Olympics, but once he turned pro and had more money his addiction problem just got worse much like Leon Spinks, who was also a functioning addict in his amateur days, but then went on to spend most of his pro earnings on his drug addiction. Biggs definitely had the potential to have a promising pro career if he could’ve managed to overcome his substance abuse problem. “Tyrell Biggs, very much at ease talking about his five-month trip from Olympic heavyweight boxing champion to rehabilitation center for drugs and alcohol, looked at the collection of beer bottles on the table in front of him and tapped one. ''This, it don't bother me to be sitting here,'' he said as, somewhat incongruously, he was being interviewed in the bar at Caesars Tahoe, the hotel casino here where he will have his third professional fight Friday night. ''I don't have any temptation to drink. Soon, I'll be able to handle a bottle of beer, or maybe a glass of wine with dinner. ''But not yet. A few drinks now, and I'll be wanting some 'caine. Maybe I could stop after a drink or two. But not with 'caine. ''It got so I couldn't wait to be through with my boxing so I could get back to the cocaine,'' he said. After his pro debut, Biggs had both time and money for cocaine. His second fight was not scheduled until Jan. 20. He went to the apartment he had rented in Colorado Springs, where he trained for the 1984 Olympics. Cocaine, he discovered, was easy to obtain, and he began using it more and more. More and more, it was tearing him down. He would punch furniture, fight with his wife and scream at his 2-year-old son, Tyrell Jr. Guilt, More Drugs He would wake up in the mornings, according to his brother Xavier, ''feel guilty about what he had done, and the only thing to make him feel better was doing more drugs.'' ''I wanted to stop,'' said the fighter. ''But when I got in my car, it was like automatic pilot and I'd go get some more.'' He tried alcohol, saying ''every time I had an urge for coke, I had a drink.'' It was no help. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/17/sports/for-biggs-durgs-were-the-toughest-fight.html
Biggs had talent but seemed to fragile in their and the drugs didn't help. Williams chin could appear China but he stepped up to Holmes, I can't see Biggs lasting 15 even with a slowed down Holmes. I'll say Carl the Truth the all round better fighter.
Tyrell Biggs was a better fighter than Carl Williams. Biggs was MILES better as an amateur. Biggs won the WORLD Championship as an amateur. I don't know if Williams even won a national tournament. And, as pros, I believe Biggs performed better against common opponents and similar competition. (For example, Biggs fought a prime, relentless Mike Tyson who was intent on hurting Biggs over an amateur slight and Biggs lasted SEVEN TIMES LONGER than Williams did, who was finished after one left hook.) Biggs had better all around skills. And he had a FAR superior chin than Williams. I also think he was tougher mentally. Biggs won a fight with after suffering a broken colar bone during the match. That doesn't happen too often. Clearly, Biggs.
Biggs intimidated people even when he was an amateur. I know this sounds ridiculous since we know how everything turned out. But I was reading a newspaper article when Biggs and some other top amateurs visited a gym where Holmes was training for one of his last title defenses, and Biggs was talking smack to Holmes and acting cocky, and Holmes did nothing. He took it. Silently. Holmes never did that. In the early 80s, everyone thought Biggs would be the next dominant champ when he turned pro. Even, apparently, Holmes.
I never knew that story, I do know the guys that fought him really wanted to win bad. Snipes And Bey certainly were not going through the motions as they did with other guys. Bey had just let old man Joe Bugner toy with him. One fight later, Against Biggs, Bey gives a hot prospect Olympian life and death! Busts him up bad before going out on his shield. They really turned up. Bey did. So did Tillis. So did that crazy guy Jeff Simms. That’s four guys who often just turned up for a paycheque. And they really didn’t have to. I always wanted to know why. It’s like they had something to prove. Perhaps Biggs disrespected them somehow because guys fought him like he stole stuff from them. I am interested what these guys thought of Biggs. I know Tyson hated him.