For about four years, 82 - 85 or so, Pinklon Thomas was a hell of a fighter .. I have been rewatching his fights against Tillis, Coetzee, Ratliff, Witherspoon and Weaver and the man was a serious fighter .. big enough, strong as hell, tremendous jab, very good speed and power .. I can say he was the only man I ever saw defeat a quality version of Witherspoon .. I know the backstory about his over coming hard drugs .. I know he became a head case egomaniac after winning the title and lost focus , took on too many cAreers, etc .. however when he lost to Berbick it was clearly two things .. the first he was unprepared and the second that Berbick when himself focused was far better than many choose to remember .. that said Thomas was only 28 as an exchamp and went on to be destroyed by Tyson one year later .. there are stories that Thomas drifted back to drugs .. is there any concrete backing to this ? Curious why he dissipated so quickly ..
Not entirely sure apart from drugs. I also think its hard to come back from a beating like the Tyson fight. It must be mentally demoralizing. How do you psychologically recover from a knockout like that? Some fighters are never the same again.
This article chronicles his troubles (and recovery) pretty well: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1991-05-22-9105210635-story.html
A similar tale (in some ways) to a lot of that 'lost generation of Heavyweights' in the 1980s. Took his eye off the ball and enjoyed himself too much dabbling with Colombia's finest (and I ain't talking about Shakira). He was, by his own admission, hooked on drugs until 1989, hence in part the slightly disappointing performance against Tyson. As has been said above, it's understandable that some of these talented Heavyweights drifted away from the big time and became unfocussed and disheartened once they had to reconcile themselves with the fact that they'd blown their prime years and biggest opportunities, and now it was too late to make up for it because a truly great and dominant Heavyweight champion in Tyson had emerged. Must have been nigh-on impossible to raise himself mentally after that loss. The clip below is from the build up to the Berbick fight, where he was at his most bankable, in what should have been his physical peak and when the world should have been his oyster. The horrendous, cringeworthy song aside, his fledgling music career and the fact that he'd already started managing other fighters doesn't indicate a guy who is in love with fighting enough to get the most out of himself. Thankfully, he did kick the habit and from what I've seen / read has enjoyed a relatively comfortable (and certainly very happy) retirement compared to a lot of the other Heavyweights of that era whose talents also went unfulfilled. Still no excuse for this, mind you..... This content is protected
Quite sad really. Classic case of drugs destroying a potentially great career. Thomas had some great potential imo, if he'd not dabbled and kept clean he'd not have lost to Berbick. Possibly beaten Holmes. Beaten most of the alphabet boys, but he'd still have had to face the Iron One eventually and that was always going to end in tears.
I'd say the Thomas that fought Witherspoon had a 50/50 shot of beating the aging 33-34 year old Holmes ..
It took some great shots from Tyson to put him down! Didn't it dislocate Pinks shoulder, the punches been thrown so hard!?
So many athletes, not just boxers got caught with drugs in the 80's The ones that didn't seemed to be the exception not the rule. Stanly Wilson missed The Super Bowl because he was high. Len Bias died from cocaine . Daryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden in and out of rehabs. The entire Dallas Cowboy and Steelers teams seemed to get caught up with some type of drug. And of course the boxers; Page, Witherspoon,Dokes, Pryor (Found wondering the streets in Miami high out of his mind,right after his greatest victory.) Leonard ,Arguello etc....
What a gifted songster! When boxingforum24 has its annual concert, we should invite him to be the headline act!
Thomas was a great fighter. Very strong, tough, and had an awesome jab. The man could move and had fast hands. I think however, that it was his tough-back-to-back name contests from the '82-'86 period. First a back-and-forth fight with Tillis, then he refractured his hand in a draw with Gerrie Coetzee. Then the big punching Witherspoon, then the big-punching Weaver. End the series of wars with a thrilling 12-round loss to Trevor Berbick. Once you've seen this fights in such a brief time frame, it's much easier to see how Tyson so easily dispatched him. And then Holyfield, and Bowe, and Morrison....
He lost his motivation became a drug addict and took brutal back to back losses to Tyson and Holyfield. Those things will take a lot of out of anybody.
