How well would a well trained and motivated Tim Witherspoon do against Joe Louis?

I can see both men testing out the waters early, but the feeling out period would be brief. before long these two would engage in a trading war, with both landing hard shots very early. I can't imagine this fight being a chess match, but rather a battle of will, chins and power. Louis would certainly be a favorite and rightfully so, given his all time great status and reknowned combination punching techniques. Spoon however, was awkward and used an old school Philadelphia fighting style that few fighters ever employed, and even fewer ever figured out. He could work both the body and head very well, and had a very underrated defense. I make no claims about who would win this fight indefinately, but I could certainly picture Witherspoon posing tremendous problems for Joe Louis as well as many if his opponents.

 

Witherspoon fought for his first title shot in 1983. In 1996, at age 38 he was still a rated contender before losing in controversial fashion to Ray Mercer. If you can prove that Schmeling was rated longer, and to such an advanced age, then I'll concede my argument here.

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I have my doubts,

Holmes was undefeated 42-0 and had some 14 title defenses behind him when facing Witherspoon. Louis was a 23 year old kid with maybe 25 fights, and no previous world championship experience.

 

The WBO was not a sanctioning body during the 80's, and nor is it an organization that a lot of fans consider to be a true world entity. As for Ray Austin being an IBF mandatory or not, you'll just have to take your pick as to who you feel was more worthy. Frankly, I don't think that it matters much right now.

Indeed, however the ring was only one entity, therfore it's naturally only going to have one set of ratings. When you have 2 or 3 governing bodies, they obviously are going to have their own separate rating system each, the same way that the ring does. And what's to say that the rings ratings are more valid or less biased than say the WBC or WBA?