How do you rate Tim Wiherspoon in an all-time rankings

First of all, I'm not a big Jimmy Young guy. He was what he was.

But so is Witherspoon.

Take away Young's fights against Ali and Foreman (two of the very best ever, by the way) ... and you still have him defeating Ron Lyle twice. You have him drawing with Earnie Shavers (and getting stopped). And you have him fighting to a 15-round split decision with Norton (the number-one contender at the time).

You take away Witherspoon' fight with Holmes and his win over, let's say Bruno, and what do you have?

You have a MD against Snipes. A MD against Page. A MD against Tubbs. A decision win and a KO1 loss to Smith. A decision loss to Thomas.

Again, what's the big deal?

Young-Norton - anybody's fight for what turned out to be the WBC belt. Spoon vs Page and Tubbs. Flip a coin.

I'd rate Witherspoon higher than Young because my eyes tell me Witherspoon was a better fighter.

But Tim never beat anyone as good as George Foreman - ever.

Hell, were Snipes and Page even better than Ron Lyle? Berbick had already beaten Page.

If you're going to take away Young's best performances, take away Witherspoon's best performances and see how "dominant" he was? (He wasn't.)

 

Witherspoon was overrated in my mind. He has a win over Smith , but Smith first round KO'd him in the rematch.
He was going life and death with Frank Bruno and was a round away from a decision loss before finding the KO.
He didn't have much of a jab and he would have been bombed out early by Tyson.

Williams , Tillis , to name a few were a level above in the skill dept.

 

Actually, Witherspoon-Bruno was scheduled for 15 rounds.

And Bruno never would've lasted 15. Even if they had an oxygen mask in the corner between rounds.

Only the WBC had 12-round title fights back then.

 

Vitali isn't anywhere near the top 15 of al timeatsch

 

I didn't remember that. Bruno winning up till the stoppage is all i recall.