James "Bonecrusher" Smith vs Tony "TNT" Tucker

Nobody knew who Tucker was when he was selected to meet Billy Douglas’s son for the vacant IBF title stripped from Michael Spinks.

Smith coming off the Witherspoon win looked like he had reinvented himself as the reincarnation of young George Foreman.

so on that form Smith is favourite.

I think it’s a good fight. Still, the unknown Tony would probably win on points.

 

Tucker by decision

 

Back in the day I thought both were pretty good fighters but that Tucker was better. Now that we have Boxrec, I am surprised to see how few good wins they have, especially Tucker. I would say Smith's career was better but that Tucker would find a way to win by decision.

 

Tucker in his prime had a good beard and could box. Lesser men beat Smith, who l like as an entertaining fighter and a very decent human being. But I pick Tucker.

 

Smith actually has quite a few good wins but Tucker is a bad matchup for him and he would lose a decision.

 

Tony Tucker wins by decision. Tucker had a excellent chin, he'd take Smiths hardest shots.

 

Tucker on points

 

Tucker never impressed me. Sure, his record was unblemished prior to going the distance with Tyson. However, who did he ever defeat besides Douglas who ran out of gas and only fought with purpose when he defeated Tyson. Outpointing an older Jimmy Young? James Broad, who went on to lose nearly all his fights aftward? Tucker was good, but I always felt he never pressed the action as he should have many times. Smith on the other hand could wack guys out early, like Witherspoon in the first round, late (such as Bruno in the final round), and anytime in between.

 

Ultimately Tucker had a very underwhelming career. He could hold his own with good fighters though.

 

Smith was powerful alright and on his night could be very dogged and determined but he was also slow, one paced and predictable. The equally pedestrian Frank Bruno was boxing his ears off before he gassed and got tagged.
Tucker was an excellent all round Boxer with good speed and variety who only lacked a big punch. He certainly isn't going to sleepwalk into Smith the way Witherspoon did.
I see this as a fairly comfortable points win for Tony.

 

Tony had better boxing ability. And took a decent enough shot to win a UD over Bonecrusher.

 

I never like judging a fighter who's mostly known for his losing efforts, wheres the actual impressive wins on Tuckers resume ? Outside of coming from behind vs Douglas, which wasn't really a good performance. Theres no standout wins on Tuckers resume, unless you count getting a gift vs Orlin Norris or scrapping by against Oliver McCall.

The fact is there no stand out performance/win from Tucker over a really opponent. I mean look at other contenders from that era, Page had his stand out wins vs Coetzee, Snipes, etc Thomas had his stand out wins vs Weaver, Witherspoon etc. Where are those type of performances from Tucker ?

I honestly feel Tony Tucker is one of the most overrated fighters Head to Head on this forum, for basically surviving against Tyson. As I've said before Tillis did better against Tyson. I don't see him getting favoured vs other fighters in mythical match ups, so why is that the case for Tucker ?