The unsung heavys who claimed the other belt that wasnt Holmes and right before Tyson was undisputed how do you rate them guys like weaver dokes tubbs coetzee berbick tucker thomas smith witherspoon etc
Head to Head I have in order: Spinks Tucker Thomas Witherspoon Tubbs Dokes Berbick Page Smith Weaver Coetzee Tate ...did I miss anyone?
1. Holmes 2. Tyson 3. M. Spinks- He won two close fights vs. Holmes, beat Cooney, and was stopped in 1 by Tyson. I don't see the other 80's HW Champs beating him though. 4. Witherspoon- He won the vacant WBC belt by beating Page, dethroned by Thomas by close decision in a fight he could have done better in. He won the WBA belt from Tubbs, dethroned by Smith by KO who he easily outpointed in a prior fight. He retained the WBA belt by stopping Bruno in England. He also lost a very close fight to a prime Holmes. 5. Dokes- He beat Weaver and drew with Weaver, dethroned by Coetzee by KO. Gave Holyfield a very tough fight before being stopped. 6. Thomas- Many had high hopes for him but in my opinion he was a little bit overrated. He drew with Coetzee. He beat Witherspoon by MD and Weaver by KO, dethroned by Berbick. 7. Tubbs 8. Page 9. Tucker 10. Smith 11. Berbick 12. Weaver 13. Tate 14. Coetzee Hard to rank them to be honest... example, Berbick beat a washed up Ali, Tate, Page, and Thomas but lost to guys like Mercado LKOby1, Snipes, Gordon, etc. Sure, he lost to Holmes but no shame in that. So, should Berbick be above Thomas?
even though he lost to page, I would rate coetzee higher than tubbs. what did Tubbs ever do? tubbs beat smith when he was coming off a loss, edged a faded page (who David bey could beat) then was out pointed by old stoner witherspoon who tested positive smoking pot before their fight. Tubbs then put extra weight on just so he could come in out of shape and miss a bonus against Tyson, won a cowboy "prize fighter" type contest against cowboys then took a green bowe pretty close... The whole 1980s beltholder, merry go round was self explanitory. rather than each champion losing to a beter guy they just lost to the previous guys chalenger... mike weaver was beat fair and square by holmes which puts him and the entire era into perspective. Weaver got another chance against tate, all this proved was that he was still behind holmes. Then he beat coetzee who had been beaten by tate so still at this point he is still behind holmes. Then he lost to dokes who talented though dynamite dokes was (never beat many rated fighters himself) and still wound up losing to coetzee who previously lost to weaver after losing to tate initialy. On the WBC side of the branch you have witherspoon then thomas and then berbick-starting and ending with men the real champ beat. At the start of that D-LIST chain page had failed in a vacant fight with spoon but he was good enough to beat coetzee for the rival belt even though he couldnt beat tubbs who blew his next fight against witherspoon who was without a belt since losing to thomas. then witherspoon blew his title to smith (a guy he previously beat) whom also could not beat Holmes. when Tyson beat berbick and smith to unify belts he was beating two men who Holmes already beat. They may have held belts but all of Holmes's rival champs all had bogus claims. In the scheme of things all of these 1980s belt holders really were nothing more than regular contenders that are comparable with other eras. And what of micheal spinks? he was a man who “developed” 24 pounds in 3 months to take on larry holmes an old champion past his best and was awarded two close wins on points - the only world class HW he ever met until Tyson.
I won't go through the whole list, but I think Witherspoon deserves to be rated right behind Holmes and Tyson.. or let's say he was the best of the short reigning ALPHABET champs. Spinks spent too little time in the division to receive a high rating. His record was 4-1, consisting of a win over an aging Holmes and a possible loss in the rematch. Cooney and Tangstad weren't worth much when he fought them, and then of course the 91 second loss to Tyson. Spoon beat prime versions of Tony Tubbs, Greg Page, Frank Bruno, James Smith, James Broad, Renaldo snipes, James Tillis, plus some unbeaten prospects in Marvin Stinson, Alonzo Ratliff, and Mike Williams. That's more than any of the other alpha champs did if you want to look at their records man for man.. Mike Weaver actually places pretty high as well, perhaps next on the list, with wins over prime Tate, Coetzee, Tillis, Williams, Duplooy and a strong performance against a peak Holmes. As for the rest of them, their credentials were pretty thin..
:good I would go along with this, weaver is close and so is gerrie coetzee who smashed leon spinks and dokes, two champs yet to be stopped. even so, I would put a lot of them at the same level, they might all beat each other on any night. If we decide weaver and withersoon were the best it is not by much, both were always unreliable against top class.
