Anyone here believe Witherspoon took a dive against Smith ?

Could be the case, but in either scenario, this is what he told Sean O'Grady in 1990:

" Don came to me before the fight and said, if you go out there and win, you WILL test positive for drugs. "

 

Word has it he like coke quite a bit, and addictions don't take fight nights into account. In fact, i think several 80's boxers were on it during some fights. Which, by the way, would fuel Magoo's theory, but my take is that Witherspoon (coked up or not), underestimated Smith, got caught with a huge punch and while he threw back hard, simply could not recover.

 

He was robbed was what he was!

 

Yes he dove from the shots he walked right into to fat and overconfident ...

 

I was thinking the same thing.

Either that, or he's simply looking for the most creative excuse he can get.

It seems strange to me that a promoter could just tell a fighter, "Lay down or I'll make you fail a drug test", and the fighter just does it unquestioningly, and says nothing of it until several years later. If any of that story is even true, there has to be more to the story than that. Don King must've done him some favors at some point, and he owed him.

 

As I have said before Witherpsoon had the tools to upset Tyson, which is a reason why they never meet in the ring. Team Tyson never wanted the risk.

 

Sorry Mendoza, I just don't buy that.

 

Here is my take from the time.

1) Witherspoon was obviously the biggest threat to Tyson. As a kid who wanted Tyson to become the champ and be one of the greatest of greats to stand next to Ali, Louis, Johnson, Holmes, etc... The Witherspoon figth was the one that worried me the most. It was the one I wanted to see the most too. He was the only HW around who I considered could extend Tyson in anyway. I expected Mike to win but thought that Witherspoon would be the kind of test that would allow us tor eally consider him great.

2) Witherspoon was almost always out of shape post-Holmes. But he had great defensive skills and a fantastic jaw. He could pace himself and was a master of going the distance.

3) Tim tested positive for something after the Bruno fight but then the test results were withdrawn or seen to be incorrect... Make of that what you will.

4) Witherspoon IMO never looks out of it. His eyes are not glazed. His legs are not shaky. He also loses on the 3 KD rule he was not KO'd or stopped by the ref.

5) Did Smith have the power to stop him. Definitely yes. 2 other unexpected 1 round blow outs come to mind Nunn-Kalambay and Nelson-Cowdell. But in both cases the winner was the favourite going into the fight.

I can't say one way or another. But it is an interesting topic.

 

Tim Witherspoon ducked mike tyson after what he saw tyson did to Pinklon Thomas( beat spoon) and other top fighters to unify the belts..... spoon became fat with man boobs he had no shot


look what tyson did to tubbs and thomas(who were as good as spoon talent wise)......Tyson TKO 2 witherspoon

 

Spoon was not better than pinklon thomas, nor tony tubbs. tyson demolished these 2 guys.


lets take a look at common ranked opponents:



Pinklon Thomas W 12 Tim Witherspoon
Tyson TKO 6 Pinklon Thomas

Tyson TKO 2 Tony Tubbs
Tim Witherspoon 15 split decision Tubbs

Larry Holmes W 12 Tim Witherspoon
Mike Tyson TKO 4 Larry Holmes




Anymore?

 

It is possible though that with all the money on line, the place in history, AND the chance to screw king that Witherspoon may have actually trained properly for the fight.

 

It's not clear cut in any sense though. Tyson will beat almost all opponents more convincingly than someone else because that was his game. He crushed people or he lost. Also, those guys were not on the up when Tyson fought them but were all on the down...

I'm not arguing that Witherpoon would have won. I'm saying how it felt to most boxing fans at the time. Witherspoon was considered to be the 2nd best HW in the world and his defence and chin made him the most serious opponent style wise.

 

Do we have a link? Would love to read it.

 

Now do a list of common opponents between Tyson and Buster Douglas.

 

I always remember the closing phrase used by the commentator following the Pinky T v Witherspoon fight..

"Tim Witherspoon lost a very winnable fight against Pinklon Thomas because he plain and simply forgot how to slip a basic Jab..."

That summed the Thomas fight up....:good