What do you mean by "a huge puncher"? Incidentally, Witherspoon stopped the Top-10 rated Tillis and Broad, as well as Bruno.
Fair comments and respect for your opinion - no Gods around here - so blasphemy isn’t on the table. However, late start or not, I do think Larry peaked earlier and against Witherspoon he was somewhat removed from the guy that beat Norton, Shavers, just imo. As to Witherspoon, while relatively green, every dog can still have its day even when they’re not perhaps fully developed in an all round way. In absolute terms I think Tim put up a great fight. Many will say Ali hadn’t hit peak for the first Liston fight but for mine, his performance in Miami is still one of, if not the, best performances of Ali’s career. I hope my previous post properly carried my intended opinion that Tim kinda threw away his chance to win by showboating in the later rounds while Larry kept chipping at him - certainly not flattering to Holmes. Holmes wasn’t perfect but he still had many elite skills and the all important ATG moxie to earn a ranking among the very best. And if it’s been inadvertently implied, I’m actually not a fan of Larry in particular - just affording him what I see as his just dues.
Usyk would win probably about 9 rounds maybe 10. He’s simply a better fighter. He has a much better gas tank than Witherspoon and he shows far better angles to attack with against the plodding Tim. I’ve seen enough of Witherspoon to know he would fall short in this match. I never had the Holmes fight that close, I thought Larry won going away. I also saw Pinklon Thomas out Jab Tim and he sat in the pocket most of the fight. Also watched recently Witherspoon’s fight with Carl the Truth Williams on YouTube. (Was hard to find for years) and honestly thought Williams deserved the Nod. In short Witherspoon never proved to be dominant against a good jabber and Usyk is a great jabber, mover and feinter that doesn’t tire. He’s beating the best Heavies in the world and he’s already at a post prime age.
I do remember the call being a bit biased - Dundee in particular or perhaps only Dundee. He was wetting his pants over Tim’s showboating - noting how cocky and confident Tim was being - he should’ve known better to identify that Tim should’ve still been putting the work in to score points. Just how I saw it anyway….
I think the Witherspoon fight was the start of the decline for Holmes whilst I'm not saying he was in bad form against Witherspoon per se. But he was starting to slip from that point onwards and you steadily see a decrease in Holmes's form and his extra weight with some extra timber was noticeable aswell during 1984-1985. I'm always of the impression that Witherspoon despite not having many fights seemed to peak vs Holmes he was in his best shape of his career and never fought a more high quality fight than he did vs Holmes.
Not sure about that. Witherspoon was old school. Joshua is one of "the new breed of heavyweights" and "not a twelve round fighter". It's not a fair comparison.
Witherspoon himself told me he built a great defence against the jab for the fight so he didn’t have to worry about it with Holmes, you prepare for it because you can’t control it, in the case of a bout with Usyk I imagine he’d have prepared for a bout the same way by building a great plan around Usyk’s right and worked off of it, not worried or stressed himself like AJ seemed to. I don’t know who would win but he knew how to plan a fight on good days.
Witherspoon has a chance, he was at his best a very good heavyweight, agree he could be inconsistent but h2h let’s take the best version. I would expect Tim to land a few nice right hands and avoid any serious punishment. But I also think he would end up losing the match 9-3 or 8-4 at best. Lack of work rate and consistency were his most serious issues. Barring a really lucky shot Usyk wins this convincingly.
Bad style matchup for Witherspoon, that cross arm guard, lean to the right and overhand right over the jab is completely neutralised by the southpaw stance, that dipping to the right just means Usyk can time him with the straight left.
Yes Witherspoon would beat Usyk. Peak Witherspoon was very strong and fast and skilful. Trained by Ali himself. Look at what Witherspoon did to Holmes - Holmes was all battered with a closed eye.
Motivated by the fight for the title, Witherspoon puts up an excellent fight, but still loses by a narrow decision - MD.