Regardless of Bonecrusher's shortcomings, it's important to acknowledge that he was a bonafide top 10 heavyweight during his prime. His size, strength, durability, and power compensated for his passivity, lack of speed, and lack of polish. Bonecrusher was beatable, but he was still dangerous.
Smith wasted a disinterested Witherspoon up in New York at the end of '86, but lets not forget that Spoon actually soundly outboxed Smith in the Summer of 1985... Nobody seems to recall that fight, but I do....
Bonehugger was a dangerous Journeyman turned good. He was in the right place at the right time (subbing for Tubbs) to take out Terrible Tim. Whitherspoon having already beaten Bonecrusher easily 18 months previously. I remember him eventually getting to Bomber Bruno three years previous to this, but then being outclassed by an ageing Black Cloud. Smith decked a streaking Ruddock heavily in their 89 bout, but really should of called it a day after that. Bugner/Smith was just plain sad.
At least he showed some sort of 'go' in him outside of the Tyson fight. Tuckers whole career was cautious, cautious, cautious.
I'll watch it again, but the most go i recall from Crusher was with 30 seconds or less to go. I thought he did bugger all, but maybe memory serves me wrong. Over the course of the collective judges scorecards scored 16 more points than Crusher.
Why watch it again mate? H.Jab said "at least he showed some go outside the Tyson fight", which he did- Spoon TKO 1, Weaver TKO1 (86) and Bruno KO 10 are clearly better than Tucker's 3 best wins. It's amazing how highly rated Tucker is with some based on losing, easily, to Tyson. Yeah, he put up a better show than Smith vs Tyson but, as mentioned, Smith had a few impressive wins.
Crusher did put on a stinker against Tyson, still can't understand as it was a bit uncharacteristic of him to be that negative. He potentially had the power and durability to gain Tysons respect, but for whatever reason choose not to put up a stern fist of it. Not sure whether he was spooked like others were but it was clear he definitely much favoured survival in there. If he had been much busier offensively from the get go I think he'd have lasted a good deal longer than Tubbs, as he had a better chin. He likely still would've lost but at least it might've've been a reasonably competitive Ruddock-esque decision or late stoppage loss. He'd definitely have got more credit either way. ... but yes his best wins were better than anything Tucker did. The Weaver and Spoon wins were impressive enough.
Well in my rush to stem the Dinner/HJ vs Tucker brigade i didn't exactly read very well did i I'm in the middle of livening a ***** up who's trying to whine about my postage costs which were clearly stated and involve more than the mere money handed over at the local post office counter :fire So yeah, in a bit of a hurry. Surely you agree Tucker would have handled Crusher, rather well IMO. Tucker, love him or hate him, was a better boxer than Crusher. Crusher did great things, considering his very late start etc but i see him a full level below Tony. I've got to go back and look at Tommy Tucker actually, i recall him being a fair bit better than you guys but had better stop and make sure just in case
Hmm, that's a thread in itself: Tucker vs Smith. Loser gets labelled with the title of 'Worst Champ of the 1980s'.
Regarding wins, Tucker's win over Douglas i rate above anything of Crusher's. His win over a Spoon who had previously boxed his jocks off is decidely shaky to say the least, given the King/Witherspoon situation and other things. Weaver was entirely hit or miss by this stage and wasn't Bruno dominating Crusher until the very last round he was axed in? Don't get me wrong, Crusher has some fine efforts and i quite often barracked for him. Damn good boxer all things considered. He did win a couple of rounds vs Super Greg even!
Yeah, good points. They're equally mediocre i'd say. The Spoon win is the most difficult to gauge, Tim looked like he didn't want to win, but the fact that Smith was a late sub could have been the reason too. But this is one defeat I can excuse, it is highly likely Spoon wanted away from King for good and the best way was to simply 'quit'.
Fair post all round. I still say Tucker beats him head to head. I mean, who would you pick with loaded 6 gun to the forehead?