What is your theory on Witherspoon-Bonecrusher 2?

While he was under the Kings, Tim had every reason to believe that he would see little to no money from a Tyson fight.

 

It was pretty much 3), greatly facilitated by 1)

The bout was steeped in controversy from start-to-finish and beyond...
...resulting in an investigation conducted by the State Inspector General.

Witherspoon simply didn't show up (and Smith knew this).
When you enter the ring with a caveman, not caring whether you win or lose, you're going to get paneled.
Smith saw his chance and took it with both fists (fair play to him).

But... ...plenty of other half-decent heavies would have beaten Spoon that night.

It's well documented that Tim was relieved by the loss that severed his ties to the Kings, once and for all.

 

I spoke to Witherspoon a bit, nice guy, really open with sharing his knowledge, I can’t remember all the messages but the jist of it was he most regrets not looking after himself properly with both management and his health / training, mentally he probably didn’t want to be there that night, got caught and found a soft spot on the canvas.

 

Both landed powerful punches. Smith entered the fight better and more decisively. This is a heavyweight. There's nothing surprising here.

 

I definitely feel Tim's management was awful, and Don Kings despicable reputation wasn't a secret. King seemed to ruin anything he touched. I think Witherspoon was distracted by King and his entourage of leeches.
I always thought had he had more fights under his belt he might have beaten Larry Holmes, Spoon only had 15 pro fights when he narrowly lost to Larry

 

If someone was going to throw a fight, he wouldn't take a beating while taking the fall. He wouldn't get up twice and have a tooth knocked out. This was just a fight where a big, strong, hard punching fighter caught another fighter early and stopped him. Watching the fight there is nothing suspicious and there is no indication of one fighter not trying to win. In fact the loser might have scored an early flash knockdown but the ref didn't count it.

 

How does one throw a fight then, Pat?

 

I think an underprepared Spoon just got caught by a heavy puncher and didn’t recover.

Spoon, like a lot of those 80s HWs, was not the most disciplined guy out there. He wasn’t in the proper mental and physical state and paid the price.

 

Never thought much about how to throw a fight, but if it was fake, I think the Lewiston method would be the way to go. Get hit with a light punch, lay down until the ref counts 10, jump up with no damage, collect the money and go home. No trips to the dentist, no wear and tear that will affect you later.

People will always question the result. But they never could prove it wasn't legit. It looks suspicious that a guy who had only one other first round knockout in 61 fights, got a first round knockout over a supposedly durable fighter. His only other first round knockout in a 61 fight career was over a last minute substitute who was listed as weighing 177, but had weighed 158 for his last fight. A lot of things happen in boxing that are hard to explain.

 

I'm thinking 'The Spoon Method' might have been more convincing

 

You are right, it looks legit! But who wants to lose teeth and take that kind of punishment if you aren't trying to win? If he was faking that one, he should be an actor.

 

No one wants to take a kicking but this is how it might go, if the opponent wasn't in on the plan and had been instructed to go hell for leather from the opening bell.

There'd be no accounting for that, and the fighter throwing it would need to do at least half a job of looking like they were trying, irrespective of the shellacking.