Tim Witherspoon vs Bonecrusher Smith II

Spoon beat better fighters than Tubbs or Thomas did. Witherpsoon was better than Thomas or Tubbs. In hind sight Witherpsoon had the set of skills ( Good jab, good chin, good right hand, good defense, good size ) to foil Tyson much like Douglas did.

 

The thing is Tyson beat the guy that hammered Witherspoon in one round, and these other contenders didn't have such a significant loss hanging over their heads. Wins over guys like Eklund, Sims, Alexander, they don't get you a title shot. Witherspoon did basically nothing from the Crusher loss all the way thru to the split decision over Williams in 1992.

 

Witherspoon was frozen out.
He was in no position to pressure Tyson into giving him a shot.
His credentials in '88 and '89 however were as good as Tubbs' and Bruno's, and Holmes'. His chances would have been perceived has better too.

Witherspoon was never gonna get a shot. He was winning fights and dropping out of the alphabet rankings. The WBC dropped him to number 26 at one point, he disappeared from the WBA and IBF lists. Magazines rated him top 4 or 5 in '89

 

Frozen out or not, the wins weren't there to force a shot. This can't be held against Tyson.

 

It cant be held against tyson, but its pretty clear that don king avoided him from getting a title shot.

 

It wasn't his only rebound at all mate. You make it sound like Williams got beat by Weaver, beat Berbick, and fought Tyson. Not at all. Williams went 3 years after the Weaver loss without getting beat, and a win over an aging but "name" opponent is head and shoulders above what Titty Tim did. You also omit his nice stoppage win over Bert Cooper, who was often dangerous in his prime. Williams rebound is a lot better than you credit.

So what? This doesn't make the fact that Witherspoon did nothing to earn a shot change whatsoever. Every champ has lesser fighters on his record, there's no hard fast rule that says Witherspoon has to be one of the lesser deserving fighters that get a shot. Some get a shot, some don't, as long as the top fighters are taken on when they should be if possible.

Same as above. **** happens.

Same as above again. Tyson got a decent payday too. Easy money. Gala event with historical significance (Passing of the torch) Both Witherspoon and Holmes were yesterday's fish and chips wrappers, neither forced a shot but Tyson happened to fight Holmes in his spare time as it was a unique chance and good easy money.

Again, undefeated in 2 years, beat a promising Williams, beat a name in Berbick, beat a reasonable McCall. He did a lot more than Witherspoon was doing, but again, it doesn't matter. Witherspoon did nothing to force a shot. We can pick at the records of guys who did get a shot, but it matters nothing. Tyson could fight whoever he liked unless forced via performance. Witherspoon never put himself in position for a mandatory shot or forced the public's interest. I too would have liked to see him get a shot, but i can hardly criticise Tyson one bit that he missed out in the rush.

Sorry, but this doesn't exactly get my pulse racing. Nor would it Tyson's. Even more pertinent is that Tyson was no longer the title holder, right? How come Holyfield didn't fight Witherspoon after his two scorching wins over Ribalta and Williams, back to back? Did Holyfield and Bowe avoid him? He hung around for years with only one loss while those two had the title.

By which time Tyson was 12 months+ without the title.

And all this still does bugger all to get a shot mate. Some get one, some miss out - stiff. It's the way it rolls.

What you need to understand is that the champs can't fight every has been, fringe contender and even half deserving contender. Some get a shot some don't, for every Witherspoon we can come up with numerous others, for Tyson, Bowe, Holyfield, whoever.

The bottom line is Witherspoon did nothing to deserve a shot, and was one of the numerous unlucky ones not to come up in the mix for an undeserved challenge. Why didn't he get a shot when Bowe and Holyfield shared the title time is possibly more warranted than this.

 

I've never argued against this, it's entirely possible, likely probable. That's not the point of my issue tho.

 

Harsh ratings manipulation against Witherpsoon. I’m sure if Don King and team Tyson wanted Witherpsoon, he’d be the #1 alphabet guy. The fact that he was pushed back out of contention makes one wonder how much they did not want to fight him.

 

The bottom line is that Tyson fought pretty much everybody, especially when we compare him to a Larry Holmes who ducked umpteen deserving challengers. He threw away a long held title, the most respected title, to get out of fighting Super Greg Page. Mike Weaver gave him the fight of his life and never recieved a rematch despite Weaver not being beaten for a full 3 years after their match, including picking up a title. After the rough treatment he recived from Witherspoon he announced to Tim's face that he was never getting a shot again. Pinklon Thomas was another travesty, not to mention his public statement that he was going to take easy defenses from 1983 onward because to hell with the people, he had done enough to deserve it.

There lies the Undisputed king of ducking.

:good

 

I did a helluva lot more than that, which is there to see, but we'll leave it at that.

Cheers mate

 

We both put our best foot forward and have prolly said it all or close enough.