In 1984 or '85. Who'd have won ? On one side,Witherspoon was inconsistent,and on the other,Holmes was ageing,as illustrated by his loss to Michael Spinks.
Both would've been really up for the fight. I'd pick Terrible Tim, not that he was better, but he was much younger and peaking around that time.
Witherspoon by close decision. When they fought in '83, Witherspoon only had 15 fights & had been inactive for 16 months, yet gave Holmes a razor close fight.
I think Holmes would have made the corrections and adjustments necessary to take a clear UD, this time over the championship distance. He managed to over train himself in a bid to take Witherspoon out, then reportedly entered the bout enervated, with a severe case of dehydrating diarrhea. Larry looked fine through the rest of 1983, a lot stronger with several additional pounds added on. It would be exactly two years later to the day before Carl Williams similarly pushed him. Previously, I watched Witherspoon-Snipes, and thought Renaldo won with inside hustle and superior punch volume. Holmes tended to fight as though he was the challenger, while Tim let his foot off the gas at inopportune moments. Holmes-Witherspoon was Tim's to win, and he blew it. My suspicion is that Larry hurt Spoon much more with that ninth round right off the ropes than Tim ever let on, and that led to increased caution on his part afterward, caution which cost him the decision.
Holmes was still good in that fight. Always hungry for recognition he would have been so up for the rematch he would have deserved to have been the favourite. However the fight did not cause a significant mainstream impact for the rematch to be worth anymore than Holmes v marvis frazier. People knock Don king but lets say he decided that rather than get spoon a "small change" rematch for Holmes's title he'd get witherspoon an alternative title in an effort to make a bigger unification showdown with Holmes that would go mainstream? Lets say Don King got witherspoon that title but he wasn’t good enough to hold onto it...Hang on!!!!
I don't like 1984 or '85... I think Holmes looked good at 219 pounds when he waxed Frazier on NBC TV in Nov. 1983... Holmes told me in 1992 out in Vegas that he felt weak at 213 in 1983 because he had the shits just days before his May 20, 1983 fight with Timmy Spoon...... MR.BILL:shock::yep:scaredas::bbb:hat
Larry was always a greater fighter than Tim. The Tim of 1986 or 7 beats the Larry of that time, but Larry would win a rematch in 1983 or 4. He had better boxing instincts than Tim and was just a better all around fighter. He would know when to fight and win a decision. I could see it going to a draw and Larry keeping his title.
The Witherspoon we saw against Holmes was the best we ever saw of him. I think Holmes squeaks by him again.
Holmes only ever fought two rematches in his career, and in neither fight did he do as well as the first- Spinks and Shavers. I know he knocked out Shavers in their second fight, but that was also after nearly being knocked out himself and having shut out Earnie in their first fight. Given how few fights Tim had at the time, I would've pegged him to win the rematch in another close affair.
I scored the Holmes Witherspoon fight in favour of Tim. In 1984, I think Tim would still have won. Whether he would have got the decision or not, is another question.
