How would Ernie Terrell size up to some of the fragment title holders of the 1980's? Just to list some of them: ( though you can discuss any of them ) - Tim Witherspoon - Mike Weaver - Trevor Berbick - Greg Page - Pinklon Thomas - Tony Tubbs - Michael Dokes
They are all good fighters but I don't think Ernie would disgrace himself against ANY of them. To be honest I regard all belt holders as contenders because like all decent contenders forced to fight a rated guy or two per year they could not stay winning. A champion is a guy who can hold off enough contenders (and stand out doing so) to establish superiority and I don't think Ernie or the above mentioned 1980s guys ever could stand out or produce real superiority at top level. I guess Terrell could join that mix and they could fight each other one after the other over and over for eternity and nobody would ever stand out. Throw in Eddie Machen, Arturo Godoy, rex layne, Ken Norton, Lou Nova, zora Folley, Jimmy Young.... they are all of the same ilk.
Haven't studied Terrell too much but I've seen a number of his fights, never been to impressed. I'd give him a shot against these guys who were all pretty inconsistent but I can't say I'd favor him against any of them. I'd expect him to be competitive had he fought this group of guys and get a couple wins but I'd also expect him to rack up a number of losses had he faced those mentioned.
Terrell had height and reach far beyond most of his contemporaries, so he'd not have been undersized in the 80's. I can see him holding the WBA title for a little while in the first half of the 80s. Less self destructive, more consistent, and better conditioned than most of those guys, so he beats any of them on one of their bad nights. But on one of their good nights, any of them beat Terrell.
Not very well. He might win a match vs. Weaver or an out of focus Greg Page, but if we are taking them on there better nights, I think Terell losses vs Witherspoon, Thomas, Dokes, and Tubbs. Berbick could be a close match.
But how many good night's did those guys have? I think they all lost to guys equal or bellow Terrell level ..as did Terrell himself.
Prime Terrell has the chance to beat all these guys by UD. Way better Jab + big Reach advantage Better Boxer , smarter And he has the a good Chin , he lost only two times by KO against one of the hardest Punchers of all Time (Cleveland Williams , both in his Prime) and once in his last fight 1973 Box most of these guys to death with his underrated Jab very easy to UD or maybe SD
I think Terrell was a featherfisted lame fighter.The bum Wepner beat him. This says all about his quality. He was 34 years old agains the bum Wepner this means he wasn't old at all. Other bums like Gray,Bethea,Merritt or Ramos could beat Terrell. Basically Terrell was very skinny. When he beat the 192 lbs Machen for the WBA heavyweight title (vacant) he was only 199 lbs for 6'6". By the modern standard it was a cruiserweight fight. Terrell's other fantastic wins were the punchin' bag 33-9-2 nobody Chuvalo and the 187.5 lbs "dangerous monster" Doug Jones. True he had only 2 ko losses but the featherfisted 201.5 lbs Spencer could knock him down in the second round. I doubt it he was better fighter than Berbick,Thomas,Witherspon or Tubbs. And i think Weaver was too dangerous for a similar weak skinny guy like Terrell. (when Williams knocked out him, he was only 197.5 lbs. Maybe Ernie was better than a fat version Dokes or Page.
