How good was Bonecrusher Smith?

First off that's one name. Fine. That being said Holmes was 33 plus and Tim , while green with I believe 14 fights, was a super talented fighter in exceptional condition. In many ways that was Tim's best fight.

Who else?

 

Which means all of nothing considering fighter in question scored one of his best wins over Mercer when he was far older then 33 and who would go on to fight at a high level, successfully, until he was 50 something years old.

 

I grew up on the "Crusher" in the early 80s... He was a hulk with plenty of muscle... Yet, he was slow as a snail and never had any reflexes at all... 1986 was James Smith's PEAK year.... He beat up dudes like Mike Weaver, Jesse Ferguson and David Bey before kayoing a woefully out of shape Tim Witherspoon for the title... That set-up the title bout with Mike Tyson in early 1987. Well, that fight sucked ham and eggs to the max... Tyson was green, and Smith held too damn much.. The bout was a "Hug-Fest." After 1987, James Smith fought on, but he never really did a whole lot that's worth mentioning... Smith was a cool guy to talk with and all, but not a great fighter at all..... Cheers...

MR.BILL:-(

 

What sort of logic was that Russell? First of all styles make fights. Second of all Witherspoon was highly motivated while Holmes was not compared to the Mercer bout where Holmes was highly motivated while Mercer expected an easy blow out.

The Mercer fight was not one of Larry's best performances, not even close. The drama made it a big win but that does not make a great performance by Holmes but a great performance by a 42 year old Holmes.

 

Larry didn't struggle against Bonecrusher at all. He was rocked once, but other than that he was in complete control of the fight.

 

How was Weaver a novice? He had nearly the same amount of fights as Larry.

 

Larry Holmes was GREAT!!! Yeah, some dudes like "Witherspoon, Smith & Carl Williams" were green when they challenged Larry Holmes, but them dudes had talent and size, along with some ability and skills....... Them dudes were NOT easy defenses....

MR.BILL

 

Holmes was also getting old by the time he fought those guys ...

 

Sorry, that didn't come out right. I didn't mean that Weaver was a novice too, just that he gave Holmes a much tougher fight than Bonecrusher did.

 

Truth Williams.

 

David Bey was a slob of a tubby piece of goo, but Bey could brawl pretty good for about 5 or 6 rds....... Bey fought a courages fight against Larry Holmes in 1985 before running out of gas, and then getting nailed by Holmes' right cross / crosses..... Bey was NOT a great fighter, but he was also NOT a *****, either....

 

I find bonecrusher interesting, as a student of boxing history because his career circumstances were similar to those of fighters from the 1940/50s.

The man is a time capsule.

 

I have seen most of James Smith's fights major fights. . For openers, he had an all time moniker. James " bonecrusher " Smith. Great name.

It is my opinion that Withersooon threw the fight he lost to Bonecrusher Smith.

 

I think claiming that HALF the men Holmes fought were novices and that they all gave him trouble, is oversimplifying things a tad. It's true that Weaver, Witherspoon, Bernick, Williams and snipes were all inexperienced, and gave Holmes some difficulty, but they hardly account for HALF of his 20 defenses, and while he struggled a bit with them, he also legitimately won those fights, and remember that some of them came when he was past prime ( williams, Witherspoon, smith ).

As for Bonecrusher beating Witherspoon, I have always believed this fight to be a dive and have explained my reasons in depth in the past, but don't care to go into again....

 

True, but he was very poorly managed and had few wins over decent fighters. While he certainly had close to the number of total fights that Holmes had, he had also lost a fair number of them... In either case, Weaver was not selected as an opponent for Holmes because of his pretty record or vast experience. He was most likely viewed as an easy opponent..

That said, he developed into a very fine fighter..