Dokes, Page and Coetzee all belong ahead of Smith at the very least. It was a great list until 7 or 8.
Perhaps. Witherspoon did look good tho picking off the Holmes jab and Tim's defensive technique and style was well suited to dealing with jabs.
As usual JT your right on point. Tyson by 1989, had proven he was the best heavy of the 80's .Though Holmes possibly had the highest profile heavyweight fight when he fought Cooney in 82.
I'm not sure what you mean? Thomas did win the fight mostly with his jab and perhaps at this point his jab was superior (and thrown even more frequently) to a tiring Holmes'. Witherspoon picked off a lot of jabs but Thomas just threw so damn many. He had an answer for almost everything Witherspoon did and wasn't afraid to trade bombs with him. Tim's punches barely seemed to affect him. Witherspoon run out of options pretty early. I think Thomas had an underrated defense too.
Dokes and Weaver at a few spots too high. Witherspoon should be higher. 3rd in my opinion. Cooney should rate. Holmes pretty much fought most on the list, and the omission of Page on his resume who's ranked 7th here really did not mean much in hindsight.
Well, he did hold the WBA title for 2.5 yrs before it became a merry go round. KO probably rated him on that. I agree, though, he may be a bit too high.
Actually Weaver overachieved winning the WBA title and then holding it for 2.5 yrs. After Dokes II, he was past prime and fading. Clearly, they rated him on beating Tate, who was looking good until Weaver kod him, and on beating Coetzee and looking to deserve the decision in the second Dokes fight. At least Weaver held the WBA title for quite awhile. Then, it became a merry go round.
Part of it was Holmes wasn't used to fighting young, hungry, talented challengers. Witherspoon just turned out to be much better than expected. Snipes did give Holmes a scare, but was far less talented than Witherspoon. Cooney was hungry, but was overhyped and not as talented as Witherspoon. After the Witherspoon scare, Holmes checked out as far as facing quality guys.
Yeah Thomas worked that jab overtime. He seemed to have more pop on it than even a Holmes jab. I'm watching it again. Spoon did land some crisp counters early.
The Tate win was huge for Weaver wasn't it. It's forgotten now that Tate was considered as good as Holmes by some and a unification was building. He was very highly regarded. Weaver's wins over Coetzee and Tillis are also important and if anything he gained more traction in the draw with Weaver which most thought he won. Don't forget his ko of Williams either, Williams had only ever lost in his much lauded fight against Holmes not long prior.
It's a good little fight isn't it. Thomas at his considerable best. Spoon did land some nice counters early. The longer the fight went the more Thomas imposed himself. Witherspoon never stopped trying even if he had to pin his hopes on landing a big punch later on.
