In the spring - summer of 1989, Both Carl "The Truth" Williams and Jose Adilson Rodriguez were highly ranked contenders.. The alpha organizations from memory all had both in their top five. Of course their rankings diminished after Williams was blasted in one round by Mike Tyson and Rodriguez was beaten in two by Holyfield. Still very good heavyweights.. Adilson was around 31 years old in the summer of 1989 with a record of 35-2-26, and a win over Bonecrusher Smith when he was still a top five heavy. He was also the south American heavyweight champ.. Truth was 29 and his record was 22-2-0-17 and had beaten Berbick the year before.. Rodriguez was 6'1" and weight fluctuating between 220-235.. Williams was 6'4", and usually around 218-220 at that time. Both had good left jabs and power in their right crosses and neither were terribly well known for durability.. Both had risen off the canvas to win fights.. I think I'll go with Williams by a decision or late stoppage, as it generally took a fighter with a decent left hook to beat him which I'm not so sure Rodriguez had.
Williams by easy UD or late rounds stoppage. Williams was a legitimate contender but had the Achilles heel week chin. Rodriguez was a protected South American who rose in the ratings with wins over non-entities and a questionable hometown decision over a starting to fade Bonecrusher Smith. Rodriguez was not taken seriously by the knowledgeble scribes of the time.
Williams was a great boxer one of my favourites .If his chin was better would have been champ for sure .Williams on points or late stoppage.
Rodrigues NEVER rose from the canvas to win any fight. I followed his entire career from 1987 until his very last fight. All his defeats have had something in common: all were by KO and when he went to the canvas, was unable to rise. His chin was a disaster. His only decent win was against a past prime James Tilis. As has been said, his victory over Bonecrusher was highly questionable. Rodriguez was an average boxer, with very limited resources, some power (specially in his right hand) and a glass chin.
Williams wins this, and clearly. He'd outjab Rodriguez in every round, and late stoppage isn't unrealistic, too.
His "entire" career began in 1983. Not 1987. And he did have 85 fights which I can't claim to have seen all of them. Still I might have been mistaken about him rising off the canvas to grab a win.. Picking Carl Williams is reasonable and I did the very same. But Truth often gets a little too much credit for troubling an aged Holmes, which is likely the primary thing he's remembered for. Adilson doesn't have much substance in terms of quality wins, but at least the man kept active. And while many of his opponents weren't stellar most of them at least had winning records and some were household journeyman types. Again I concur Williams takes this but I don't think its an easy fight.. Tillis and Ferguson both had the truth decked and an aged weaver destroyed him.
I mean I saw all his fights since 1987, the year he faced Bonecrusher. I agree that Mr. Williams would win, and I never said it would be an easy fight. Rodrigues could punch and Williams didn't have a granite chin....
