Peak vs peak, who wins? I've been kinda lowering Holyfield's placement on my H2H list over the past couple months, and now that I've got Tyson and Frazier above him, this is the next fight in line. I honestly think that Witherspoon would win a good decision over him. At his peak he was extremely strong and slick, and I don't know if Holyfield would be able to squeak out a decision like Holmes did. Terrible Tim's Can Opener is also EXTREMELY troubling for Holyfield, both due to it's high likelihood that it lands, and that I wouldn't beat on The Real Deal taking it too well.
I went with Holyfield by a decision. Ferdie Pacheco once said if spoon was fit and motivated he’d give Holyfield “ fits “ and I agree. This was on showtime championship boxing in 1989 when Holyfield fought Adilson Rodriguez. After the fight the announcers did a run down of possible future opponents for him and spoon was among them. That said, I think Holyfield’s heart, style, and conditioning would see him to a points win but it wouldn’t be easy
Tim would be insanely troubling to any man if he was in great condition. I got him marked as the best non-ATG H2H.
There was a lot of missed opportunities and blown out potential in the 80s, but Witherspoon's own pools of each were enough for multiple men.
I agree and have said the same thing for decades. Some have said that the Tyson camp didn’t want anything to do with him, although a lot of that was probably Spoon’s legal dispute with Don King which went on for years
Witherspoon could've beat both Holyfield and Bowe at his peak unfortunately after falling out with Don King there was no way he was going to get a big fight again. Witherspoon was ranked as a top 5 Heavyweight between 1984 to 1990, even if he had a bad blip vs Bonecrusher in their 2nd fight he still should've got a shot vs Tyson or Holyfield. But unfortunately as i said after the Don King fall out he was never going to get a big fight.
I honestly feel like Bowe would've been the easier matchup for Witherspoon because of Riddick's leaky defense, even if I rate him higher than Holyfield.
