Tim Witherspoon vs Buster Douglas

Witherspoon is one of the best HW fighters in history for me.

You could argue that aside from the first round blowout he didn't lose in the 80's.

Fantastic fighter when on form.

 

Witherspoon taking this one I believe. With out taking any thing away from buster, who of course pulled of the biggest upset ever, it's Tim who's much the better all round fighter. On his best day, top form he takes it to Douglas hard. Buster as a little success with the jab but tims the one doing the damage. Witherspoon s on top throughout the fight till the tenth when a barrage of punches put Douglas down for the ten.

 

Tim

Tim was building a good record until that strange defeat to Smith.
After that ,despite a long run of good wins, he never really fought at elite level again in his prime.
Issues with Don King i believe caused this.

 

Whats also noteable regarding Witherspoon is that somehow he never fought any of the big names from the late 80's early 90's. Tyson/Lewis/Bowe/Holyfield/Ruddock/Tucker/Morrison/Foreman etc...
He did fight ( and lose) to Mercer, which brought his run to an end . His decline followed.
At his peak though, he seemed to be put out of the picture following the Smith defeat.

 

That's right, witherspoon just vanished for a long period of time. Like u say trouble with the don. He could have had some cracking fight s in the early 90 and would have won a good few imo

 

I would take Douglas and his motivations of Tokyo over any version of Witherspoon but i would take Witherspoon over any other version of Douglas.

 

Take each from their best performances and Douglas makes him look 2 tier below.

 

Yes, he sure didnt fulfill his potential.
A handful for anybody as he had all round ability and was very durable. As you say, he probably wouldve been in the mix against those big names.After he beat Bruno he probably was the man to challenge the upcoming Tyson, but then came the first round defeat to Smith.
After that he fought often enough, but was kept away from the title.
Im fairly sure that was due to issues with DK.

 

Witherspoon. Absolute nightmare for rangy boxers

 

Tokyo Douglas showed great skills and had great athletic ability, Witherspoon was good but never impressive imo.
Douglas beats him no problem

 

Tim really screwed up his career by losing to Bigfoot.... without this loss... I think he would have had a big time fight in the early 90's.. after this loss.. he fought some shitty opposition and ruined any momentum he had at the time

 

one of the best hws in history losing against james smith by ko and losing against the all time great pinky thomas ...forget it. spoon was hot and cold, he had his moments and it was all