Yes Buster differed from Tysons other opponents in that he was fight hardened and competitive in recent times before the Tyson fight. He had wins over Berbick and McCall before Tyson if I remember correctly? Buster was a strange one , he wilted suddenly against Tucker and had lost other fights prior to that , David Bey , Mike White and Jesse Ferguson beat him on the way up. He had the profile of a member of the alphabet gang until he showed up In Tokyo. As for Williams and Witherspoon i now totally agree with you. I had thought Spoon was slightly better but having re visited their careers there was nothing between them, Tim was just busier. His blow out defeat to Bonecrusher came at a time when his stock was high and he never really got it back. When they fought in 1991 they were both easily past their best . I watched the fight today and it's hard to see how Carl wasn't given the win. Williams wasn't the luckiest fellow in or out of the ring. His daughter died of leukaemia and then he himself died in his early 50's . Incredibly sad.
Bad chin and a lot of inactivity. He was destroying a past prime Mike Weaver and then................ Rebuilt nicely but then kod by one Tyson lefthook. After that he was too inactive.
Nice summary , he only fought twice in 2 years after Tyson then came the Witherspoon loss . To be fair he rebuilt again after that , fighting more actively the following year but then ran into Tommy Morrison, Carl put up a hell of a fight, had Morrison down twice before losing , he arguably looked in better shape than when he fought Witherspoon. A few months later he lost to Bruno and became an opponent as he fought through his mid to late thirties.
He sure did. Sadly ended up broke after his divorce and worked as a security guard at Ground Zero and other security jobs until he became poorly.
The 80's heavyweights are like those side characters in an anime. They have their moments here and there, but ultimately their purpose is to get beat up by the main villain (tyson).
Witherspoon absolutely WAS better than Williams because he could take a punch. One can argue Williams was as good a boxer or better than Tim but as an overall fighter Williams shaky chin puts him below Witherspoon with no real need for debate.
Completely disagree. Weaver showed Williams had a shaky chin and that he could box extremely well against guys that couldn't get him out of there. Weaverhad one punch power, hit a lot harder than Holmes and got his best shot in. Williams was a very good boxer and against an aging Holmes this held him in great stead. Holmes was never a big hitter and at this stage was not the offensive fighter he had been in previous years.
Williams had shown himself to be chinny prior to Holmes Jack. In his fight immediately prior to Holmes, James Tills, a relatively light hitter dropped him twice in round 1. You can view it on youtube. It's set not to be able to be linked and watched on other websites.
Witherspoon could be dropped and wobbled. Williams himself had spoon on spaghetti legs in round 8 of their fight. And Smith blew Witherspoon away inside a round. Sure Witherspoon appears tougher but I am not sure how far that goes. Ultimately they beat the same kind of guys who were all the same. and I don’t believe Williams or Snipes for that matter were any different from the rest of the alphabet contenders just because they didn’t happen to get an alphabet belt. I mean Witherspoon got an alphabet belt because one happened to be at steak when he beat Page. But Joe Bugner and David Bey beat Page too. He was no different. Williams beat Berbick when he was no different from when he beat Thomas for a belt. Williams is right up there with Witherspoon and the gang.
Exactly Weaver had one punch power. He could take anyone out of there on a good night. Same with Tyson. He could take anyone out too. So why hold it against Williams?
Nah. Witherspoon beat better guys and has a better record. Witherspoon does not "appear to be tougher" he simply is! Williams didn't beat the same Berbick who beat Thomas, Berbick was 2 years older and had suffered a smashing from Mike Tyson. Williams can't be rated alongside Witherspoon. Witherspoon is a level above him. I often say he is overrated but he is better than Williams.
Fair go. James Tillis dropped him twice in the first round. Plenty of people weren't taken out by one punch from Weaver. Williams was stopped 3 times in a row at one stage. He was chinny.