Greg Page

While I would agree about too much attention being paid to Page's physical appearance, one should also remember that we aren't talking the 224-227 range when considering his biggest fights to date (Witherspoon I) for which, if memory serves, he came in at 239. There's no excuse for being THAT heavy. He also fought like a slug that night, laying against the ropes and clutching at Witherspoon.

 

Well Sal, Greg later did come in closer to 240 than 230 for Coetzee, which while not one of Page's more impressive performances, did get him a world title claim, with two straight defeats preceding, and two more defeats succeeding Coetzee. But after Gerrie upset Dokes, he should have felt honor bound to redeem himself against Weaver in 1984, not defend against somebody coming off two bad losses.

 

Page had talent no question. As did a number of other heavyweights from that era. At the end of the day the fighter is responsible for his conditioning and performance but with that said Don King didn`t help.

Can`t discount the influence of drugs in the 1980s as well. From what I understand the enviroment that Don King provided his stable of heavyweights was not a positive one. Even his training camp was littered with drugs.

Not sure how I would rank Page compared to those other fighters be it Witherspoon, Tubbs, Thomas etc. they all had good talent, size, power etc.

 

I tend to favor Witherspoon, because at his best, he had chin [strongly suspect a dive in Bonecrusher II, although he might have been caught cold], mobility, speed, power and skill, size, and was good with both hands. Pinklon didn't have the mobility, and his right hand wasn't outstanding. Tubbs didn't have great power. Cooney and Carl Williams lacked punch resistance. I've said my piece about what I believe to have been Greg's limitations.

 

Page was the most talented heavy of the 80's.Witherspoon had the chin to match, and was more powerful, but not the speed and the fluidity, and the overall boxing skill.Tubbs was the only one with the boxing ability to compare to Greg, but didn't have the power, and his chin was suspect.Thomas had a great jab, but was always overrated. 218-225 was the best weight for Greg, but after losing to Tubbs, wasn't the same fighter anyways.

 

Witherspoon was my favorite of the bunch mostly because he was probably the best puncher and he was a Philly fighter. He might have been the best when in top condition.

 

A Philly fighter who arguably lost to Renaldo Snipes.

 

I absolutely agree that Renaldo completely outworked Tim with hustle on the inside, and should have earned a clear UD, but the idea of Holmes-Snipes II would not be countenanced. Spoon's lack of effort here presaged his blowing of his undeserved challenge of Larry.

Strange things happened when Mr. Snipes stepped in the ring, whether it was getting bitten in a clinch by Jumbo Cummings, twisting his ankle by stepping on a camera being held on the floor inside the ring ropes by an idiot photographer during his weirdly split decision win over a sausage porked Eddie Mustafa Muhammad [where the much smaller EMM never took a backwards step], getting screwed out of the Witherspoon decision, decking the durable Berbick in the opening round, being gifted with a decision after getting floored twice by Coetzee, somehow losing a decision to Evangelista, or the zoo title shot at Holmes, but nobody I knew wanted to miss Renaldo when he was on the tube. The greatest performance of Greg Page's career was upstaged when he closed Renaldo's eye, causing hyper Hector Camacho and friend to ape Stallone, repeatedly crying, "Adriaaannnn! Yo, Aaadriannn!!!!"

No, it wasn't the anticipation of an exciting fight which caused fans to tune in when Snipes was on the air. It was the pursuit of extreme weirdness. Blink, and you might miss something ridiculously bizarre. I figured we'd see an earthquake, girls flashing their boobs at the camera during mid round action, or a fan man type thing.

 

they all lost fights and they all underachieved. No of those fighters stood out and they all had talent.

 

VERY GOOD= you could see it already when he fought ledeox...but he was up and down in weight and that aint good.

 

Dissilusionment,Don King ,Desire,Dedication.