Anthony Witherspoon

@Tim Witherspoon

 

Anthony is Tim’s brother.

Here is Tim talking about Anthony.

“I had better tricks than Bruno,” said Witherspoon. “He was in phenomenal shape, but didn’t really have a plan. His punches were all jab, right, left hook, and his defence was just holding his hands up. I beat a lot of guys because I just knew more than a lot of them.”

Witherspoon had a better boxing education than most. He took up the sport at “20 or 21” after injury prevented him completing his sports scholarship at Lincoln University in Missouri and pursuing a possible career in American football.

“All my friends back home were boxing,” said Witherspoon. “My brother Anthony, [former IBF 154lb champ] Buster Drayton. There were so many good fighters around Philadelphia in the 1970s.”
[url]https://www.boxingnewsonline.net/tim-witherspoon-i-wanted-to-bring-don-king-to-justice/[/url]

I have an article on Anthony that I’ll post later today when I get home.

 

Fringe contender with power but a dentable chin.

Biggest fight was a ko loss to Willie Edwards for the NABF title.

The beat writer for Ring Magazine ( I cant recall which one) said "if either had a chin."

 

Here is a piece that for the most part is on Anthony Witherspoon, but Slim Jim Robinson and Tim Witherspoon also talk about Anthony.

Anthony Witherspoon decided to become a professional fighter at age 26. A little late perhaps, nut well, that's Anthony. He Doesn't like to rush things. By the time Muhammad Ali was 26, he already changed his name, won and lost the heavyweight championship, officially retired and un retired. He was on the comeback trail, for gosh sakes.

Sugar Ray Leonard has won an Olympic gold medal, held world championships in two weight classes, earned $35 million and moved his family into a mansion in rural Maryland. He won't turn 26 until May.

And here's Anthony Witherspoon, now 27, training for his fifth pro fight, an eight-rounder against Ugandan light-heavyweight John Odhiambo (9-0) Saturday at the Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Witherspoon is just starting out at an age when most fighters are ready to pack it in. Every day in the gym, he's surrounded by kids in their late teens and early 20s, kids who have more experience and more years to chase their dream.

YOU MIGHT NOT SEE the logic in what the former Southern High athlete, is doing, but remember, this is boxing we're talking about. Historically, logic and the fight game have had little, if anything, to do with each other.

"I know most fighters start out young." said Slim Jim Robinson, Witherspoon's trainer, "but there are exceptions to every rule. Rocky Marciano didn't turn pro until he was 25 and he did OK.

"It all depends on the individual. I don't measure a fighter's potential by age as much as desire. I'd rather have a 27-year-old fighter with great desire than a 21-year-old fighter who just wants to jive around.

"Anthony has great desire. If he didn't, I wouldn't be working with him. I make it understood with all my fighters ... If they don't want to be a champion, I don't want to be bothered with them. If they don't want to pay the price, then I'm not gonna waste my time.

"Anthony and his brother Tim [the 14-0 heavyweight] both said they wanted to be champions and they've proven to me that they mean it.

They've done everything I've asked of them. In fact, they're always asking me if they can do more.

"I think they'll both go all the way," Robinson said. Tim might only be one or two fights away from a title shot. He's signed to fight Leon Spinks here at Playboy next month. Spinks is a former champ, a big name. If Tim whips him, he's in line for a shot.

ANTHONY IS PROBABLY a year away. Six more fights ought to do it. Wait until more people see this guy. He's devastating. He's had four pro fights, won them all by knockout. Three in the first round, one in the second. One shot and he turns out the lights."

"His last time out," brother Tim said, "he fought Bernard McClean. McClean had 22 pro fights. Tough guy. He had just fought Pete McIntyre [the WBC's No. 9-ranked light-heavyweight] and gone seven rounds.

"Anthony came out, boom, KOd McClean in the first. My brother is bad. You ask the people around the gyms. They'll tell you. I don't know who this guy [Odhiambo] is, but he's in for trouble Saturday."

This is all pretty amazing for Anthony Witherspoon, a shy, soft-spoken young man who professed a genuine distaste for boxing just a few years ago. Anthony "fooled around" with the sport for a while, then gave it up in disgust after a brief and undistinguished amateur career. He had two Police Athletic League bouts and lost them both. He says he decided to come back to the ring only because he wanted to be a professional athlete and, at 26, his options were rather limited. It was either boxing or ... gee, come to think of it, there were no other options.

"I really wanted to be a pro football player," Witherspoon said. "I was an All-Public wide receiver at Southern. I went to a junior college in Arizona for one year. I played football there, but I didn't finish.

"I CAME HOME AND took a maintenance job at Pennsylvania Hospital. I played semi-pro football on weekends. I played for a team called the Vagabonds. I played both ways, wide receiver and cornerback. I played basketball, too "I knew I had [athletic] ability ... It was a question of whether I wanted to use it and how. I could have stayed at the hospital and worked 9-to-5 the rest of my life. I mean, the money was OK and my life was going pretty smooth.

"But I figured, hey you don't that many chances to try things with your life," Witherspoon said Why not try sports? Since I had been there in the same house, setting the example, I guess it was only natural I'd come back to boxing"

Last year, when Anthony came to Robinson to launch his pro career, he was a mess. He didn't have bad habits; but he didn't have any habits. He didn't telegraph punches he sent them third-class mail.

"What did I have to teach him Robinson said, smiling. "Everything I had to start at square one I had to teach him how to hold his hands, how to stand, how to move, how to slip punches, how to balance and shift his weight. "But I saw right away that he had potential. He had tremendous power in both hands. When he hit guys they felt it. I knew if I could work with him, get his timing down that he was throwing those punches with his weight behind them he would ring up a lot of knockouts.

"THE OTHER THING HE had was the heart. I told him we had a lot of work to do and it was going to be a struggle, but he never complained.
"To this day, I never have to worry about Anthony doing his roadwork. I know he's out there every morning Rain, cold, snow. It don't matter. He wants it bad."

"It wasn't easy at first. Anthony Witherspoon said softly. I started sparring with guys like Matthew Saad Muhammad and Richard Kates. They were world-class fighters they kicked my behind pretty good. "There were nights I'd walk out of the gym, aching all over and I'd thing, 'Nah, this isn't for me. Then I'd look back and see Tim still working on he heavy bag and I'd say "Man, get back in there." And I would. "Tim's been a real inspiration to me. Even though he's my younger brother, he's the one who really had the initiative to go into boxing. He's the one who made it. Nobody in the family really expected it.

"Tim was always a joker and a kidder. He didn't hang out on the the street and start trouble. He fought less than any kids from the neighborhood. "At first, he didn't tell anybody he was boxing. He'd come home late and we'd ask him where he was and he'd say 'I was out.' I guess he didn't wan't us bugging (discouraging him). But when he got into it heavy he told us.

"I WAS THE SAME way Anthony said. "I kept is quiet when I started boxing. Why? I don't know I guess I was afraid to say much about it just in case I didn't do well. I didn't want it to be a big letdown. "I had my first pro fight on a card with Tim. So all our friends came to see Tim fight and, all of sudden there I was in the ring. Yeah, they looked pretty surprised, But I won and Tim won, so everybody went home happy."

"Boxing is hard work, you have to be dedicated. You can't think about women, You can't think about getting high, You have to keep your mind on one thing and that's winning the championship. Everything you do has to point in that direction. "Slim's had two champions." Anthony Witherspoon said. He had Mike Rossman and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Me and Tim, we want to give him two more."
[url]https://imgur.com/MhRqjb8[/url]