I could see this going 3 ways- Norton by close decision if both men stick with boxing. Witherspoon by late round KO if he fights smart and is aggressive. I could see Witherspoon winning a close decision if he hurts or drops Witherspoon early. I doubt Norton would stop Witherspoon if 'Spoon was at his best.
Witherspoon to get the KO late in the fight. Witherspoon in his prime was a borderline great fighter.
If he had got that "deserving" decisions over Holmes, maybe he would have gone and become one. (but Don King was in the situation too keeping 'Spoon all stirred up in legal issues)
I accidently posted this in general first and only got 1 response from Area 53...pretty decent so I thought I would post it here as well.
Deserving is a bit of a stretch.....Some think he deserved it...some, like me feel Holmes notched it. To close and to many diverse opinions to call it deserving.
Norton was in better shape most of the time and while Tim could punch he was not a pressure fighter nor was he very fast...I think Kens odd style, good speed and conditioning makes him out work Tim for a UD I don't think Tim had too many KO's against his best competition usually SD and you had to be a Banger to push Kens buttons otherwise he could outwork you, he did it to Ali and even an older version did it to Holmes all close fights, Tim may have hit harder than Ali and Holmes but it never showed up
Dude, he didn't "notch" it, he ****ing whipped him. That's another fight I'll never understand how is so "controversial"... People make it seem like it's so close, and it isn't. Witherspoon didn't do **** in that fight. He had Holmes hurt somewhere in the mid-rounds and didn't follow it up with ****! He was content to follow Holmes around and eat punches. He ****ed up. Had he stepped up the pressure and actually thrown some punches, especially after giving Holmes a scare like he did, he may have achieved something. He didn't. I think he does the same thing in this fight. Does just enough to lose a decision.
Norton ud , simply Norton would be the more likely to show up in the best shape and I am going with the more consistent man in this match-up
Ken Norton is better conditioned both physically and mentally and has way too much discipline to lose to a Tim Witherspoon. Norton would beat the ding-dongs, the chocalate yo-yos, the ho-hos(if those actually exsist) and twinkies off of Witherspoon and basically beat him into submission. Norton by decision!
I stick to my guns; Witherspoon even at his best wouldn't beat Holmes. Green or not, many people make it seem like it was soooo close and in some instances, make it seem like Tim deserved the win. Nothing could be more preposterous.
I saw that one a couple of years ago. I did a scorecard at Maxboxing and I did have Holmes winning but I remember it being close. Larry was starting to slip by that time but he still had a boatload of experiance.
