Anyone here believe Witherspoon took a dive against Smith ?

Seldon dove against mikey!

 

Seldon dogged against Mikey

 

You guys need to stay out of the classic forum until you learn the difference between quiting and taking a dive

 

I beleive it was a fix. Witherspoon was not in shape, not warmed up, and really did not try to throw many punches.

Witherpsoon had a great chin, good legs, and a fine defense. It seems to me like Witherspoon does not try to tie Smith up, or escape, and his legs look all right to me because he got up quickly on a no-count.

I believe the deal was for Witherpsoon to take a dive, then King leaves him alone.

Witherspoon's home was also robbed on the same night. Something was very fishy about this one.

 

Yes,

In the years following this match, Tim Witherspoon has told various people in multiple interviews that he was specifically blackmailed by Don King into taking a dive in the Smith fight. I wrote a whole thread on this subject about a year ago. Some posters were convinced while others insisted that the fight was on the level... For my money, there was never a dive that was more obvious than that one...

 

In fact Tubbs had been forced to rematch Witherspoon because of traces of drugs in Witherspoons system in the first meeting and with one week to go Tubbs emerged with an elbow injury.. They called a last minute substitute who was Smith , an in shape smith who was in intense training for a match with Mitchell Blood Green.. Green went berserk at King when they ruined his fight plans for the TV date.. It was destined that Smith would become champ, a great underdog story, i honestly beleive that Smith caught Spoon cold, even though Witherspoon did want out of the King contract and even went on to be the first man to win his case in court against King.. King always vowed that Witherspoon would be like a needle in a haystack if he ever crossed him. (Hard to find) In fact from that very day in 86 , Witherspoon never got a real shot at any title of sorts or even a major shot in the HBO series until he returned with a big win in the late nineties against Jorge Luis Gonzales at MSG on the Big card when Lennox fought Mercer.. I always thought he deserved a shot at Tyson at some time when Mike was ruling the waves..

 

Taking a dive when the winner was guaranteed to face Tyson for big bucks would be ******ed. Without a belt Witherspoon was frozen out. Didn't he suspect that would happen?

 

He took a dive because he was BLACKMAILED into doing so... Don King DIDN'T WANT, Witherspoon being a part of the heavyweight title unification project.

 

You're saying had he won, King would've made sure he'd fail the drugs test & get him stripped?

 

While anything's possible, I don't see anything that jumps out out me and makes me believe it was a dive. It looks to me like a typical fight where one guy shows up in terrible condition and mentally/physically unprepared (and Witherspoon definitely was that) and a hungry, motivated fighter takes him by surprise.

As said already, it looks like Withers got shaken somewhat by that right hand in the opening second of the fight, and never really got his act together.

A few things I'd like to point out:

1) At about 5:09 of that clip, Withers swings a big right hand off the ropes, and Bonecrusher goes down. The ref ruled it a slip and the commentators seemed to agree it was a slip, so I suppose they're right. But it looks like Withers was swinging with bad intentions on that punch, like he knew he was feeling desperate already and was genuinely trying to back Bonecrusher off.

2) At about 5:27 of the film, Bonecrusher lands a short right hand on the inside that wobbles Wither. That was a freaking MONSTER punch!! :admin You couldn't ask for a more perfectly planted right hand than that. Most of the punches that dropped Withers after that looked more like clubbing punches, so I could understand how some people might suspect the fight was a dive. But at the same time, that punch there was so hard, I can easily see how a fighter's legs would be left weak for the whole rest of the round.

3) Bonecrusher came into the fight as a late sub, and although I can't remember who the original opponent was (someone here said Mitch Green, another said Tony Tubbs), I would guarantee that Withers had not trained to fight a puncher. Furthermore, the fact that Withers had already beaten Bonecrusher decisively could've easily left him overconfident and thinking ahead to other fights.

 

No question about that.

Witherspoon definitely deserved a shot over Tubbs, Bruno, Williams, or Douglas.


Incidentally, I've heard Witherspoon also turned in a surprisingly lackluster performance against Pinklon Thomas, at a time when he was also having issues with King. I never saw that fight. Does anyone have any comments about that one?

 

I agree, the post-fight and pre-fight matters are a bit strange.

Witherspoon's reaction after the fight is over does look odd to me. He's a guy who just got embarrassingly blasted out in one round and lost his title, and he shows no emotion at all. He has the same look in eyes throughout, before, after, and even during the fight, as though the fight never even happened.

 

If the rumours of the fix are even half true it yet again shows what a complete and utter **** Don King is.

I don't know for sure if it was a fix but Witherspoon looked like he hadn't trained,wasn't focused and didn't care.So while he mightn't have taken a dive he didn't really want to win either if that makes sense.Probably his contract issue's played a huge part in this and Don Kings malevolent influence.

All I know is that Tim was a lot better than that and that King was largely responsible for Tim being in the wilderness for years and his career never achieving the heights it may have.

I'll say it again Don King is a **** of a man.

 

That's exactly what I'm saying, and that's exactly what Witherspoon told Sean O'Grady in a 1990 interview.

 

I'm pondering whether it was more a case of

Don wouldn't pull any strings to make sure he passed the drug test, rather than failing him falsely?