The Tony Tucker thread.

True lol

 

I've heard for years how Tucker was the best of the 80's... below Holmes and Tyson of course. Hell, I think I even bought it for a minute or two... but it's not true. He had the height and reach and he had the look. He even looked good vs. the bums he beat. He beat very few decent fighters though. He landed a decent shot on Tyson! Big deal, what's else ya got?

Witherspoon, Thomas, Dokes, Weaver, Tubbs, Page, Coetzee, and others fought better fighters. They may have had more losses but that's what happens when you fight good fighters.

 

Witherspoon beat Ratliff KO7, Snipes W10, lost a SD to Holmes, beat Cummings W10, Tillis KO1, Page W12, lost a MD to Thomas, beat Broad KO2, Bonecrusher W12, Tubbs W15, Bruno KO11, and then he lost a very strange fight to Bonecrusher Smith LKOby1.

Pretty impressive except for that loss to Smith. Sometimes Witherpsoon came in out of shape but he still got the job done most of the time. No one dominated him during this stretch.

 

And Ali lost to Leon Stinks.

 

Pinklon Thomas beat Tillis KO8, drew with Coetzee, beat Ratliff KO10, Witherspoon W12 (for the WBC title), Weaver KO8, and then lost a close decision to Berbick. Later on he was stopped by Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, and Morrison but he had a good run.

 

I don't think you quite got why I made that comment.

 

I do, I didn't mean to quote you. Sorry about that

 

Well first of all, I scored the Tyson-Tucker fight 8-4 for Tyson so it was far from a domination, It was a good quality fight and I don't see why you aren't giving respect to a fighter who went 12 rounds with ****ing Tyson. Most Tyson victims would just get KO'd.

This is just pure disrespect. Tucker managed to beat McCall, Norris, Douglas, he went 12 rounds with both prime Tyson and Lewis. So sure he doesn't have a lot of great names, but that's not really the point. of course, then when he was past his prime he started losing to guys he would've whooped.

 

He was very good and prime in 87. He did give Tyson a tough fight. That was around Tyson's absolute peak form, so to go the distance and win a few rounds was impressive. I remember it being around a 117-111 type fight.

When he barely beat Norris, edged McCall and gave Lewis a good fight, he was already past his prime.

If he had continued to fight regularly after the Tyson loss, he could have done some real damage.

After the layoff, it was too late - he no longer had the nimble (for his size) foot movement he displayed against Tyson, and he was a bit slower and was no longer in prime physical condition - his weight was always over 230 lbs. post layoff.

He was WAY past prime when he lost to Seldon, Ruiz and Hide. Prime Tucker would have taken those guys out, or at least won an easy decision.