Happened to be looking at his record and was quite surprised to see how many live opponents he defeated in his pre-title career. Most had a positive win-lost record and there were no padded pst-it names in there. Lopez, Mercado, Bobick, Knoetzee and Coetzee were at near peak when he defeated them and wins over Santemore and Bourdoux were better than great looking victories over faded name fighters. He was leading Weaver until caught so maybe we should re-evaluate his position. Any thoughts?
Tate began his career beating lot of unbeaten class fighters as you've already touched upon. He came out of the 76' Olympics with a bronze medal and was viewed as a talented young hopeful right from the start. he was a decent boxer who stood 6'4" and was a rather well built fighter in his prime. Larry Holmes was approached with the idea of fighting John Tate for a title unification, and from what I've heard the fight was in the works, but Tate was jinxed, and lost shortly after to Mike Weaver. Tate's life fell into disrepair following the Berbick loss. He went to jail for armed robbery and made some other bad decisions. He put together a streak of wins during the mid to late 80's, but fell short in 1988 against Noel Quarless as I'm sure you saw on Boxrec. Ten years later in 1998, John Tate died in an automobile accident in which he was the only motorist involved. I think I read somewhere that he was driving a truck, and somehow managed to flip it or something ( source needed ). Anyway, he died at the young age of like 43.
Re John Tate's Fatal Accident, as i seem to recall at this stage of his life he was well over 300lbs and suffered from diabetes, which can bring on sudden drowsiness, i belive that this was one suggestion for what may have caused the accident, sorry its a bit sketchy,
Probably may have not lasted too much longer as champ, if he had beaten Weaver, Cooney,Page, and Dokes were in the wings to take him.
Tate met no one that special on the way up, and sold out by going and getting money in South Africa (twice), and in doing so, in his own small way propping that regime up for a few more years... He met two top 10 fighters and lost to them both, and anyone who gets outpointed by Noel Quarless cannot be taken to seriously
Tate was not the brightest guy. He was apparently learning-disabled and his manager Ace Miller called the shots. Ace didn't do too good a job of managing Tate's finances either. Tate apparently suffered a mild stroke while driving (according to the county coroner) and was killed in the crash. He was a sad story.
Lopez, Mercado, Bobick, Knoetzee and Coetzee ....were they not top ten guys? i wasnt rating him by his political or moral stances.
Ok Coetzee was at the time and Mercado may of got in to alphabet crap top 10, but not the rest when they fought Tate.
i dont rate Mercado but at the time ring had him still at no 9, year end 1980. bobick was still fringe when beaten in 79 and Knoetzee was at six with Ring at the end of 78. Point is tate was not fighting burnt out names like say Jimmy Young but rather Lopez in his fifth fight, Mercado in his tenth, Bordeaux in his twelfth, fights 15, 16 ,17, were Bobick, Knoetzee and Coetzee. how many other prospects have taken on similar opposition so early?
I've always felt the same way about John Tate's early opposition and have made the same observations when looking at his record. He fought young prospects who were rated and had decent records. Did a lot of these guys amount to much later? Not really. But at the time they were at least competitive, and like you say, Tate didn't pad his record with has beens, journeyman or tomato cans.
John Tate fought some pretty good comp coming up, and if he had taken certain precautions, maybe he wouldn't have lost the title so soon.But he probably should've waited a little longer to make that comeback fight after the Weaver loss.
Funny line ... Bobick was a bust. Knoetzee was a strong but limited plodder. Coetzee was a decent win but in reality Gerrie was always over rated .. at that point his own one big win was over near novice Spinks .. I don't know much about his victory over Mercado, a dangerous puncher ... Tate was a sad story ... after his crushing loss to Weaver, the way he was crushed by Berbick kind of ruined him ..
Very under-rated champ in my view. His pre-championship record should be a lesson to all up and coming heavies; he was not protected like they all seem to be these days. He had a good right hand, moved well for a big man and his technique was was very good. He managed to beat Gerrie Coetzee in South Africa in front of thousands of fans, in what must have been a terrifying atmosphere for a simple country boy from Tennessee. Something went wrong against Berbick, very wrong and I don't know what it was but he just lost all his confidence and never again even competed at a level he was at before he was champ.:think:think:think:think:think
