What went wrong with James "Quick" Tillis?

True.
He was unlucky to be matched with someone as tough as Thomas at that point. Thomas was mostly unknown then, and Tillis was the "name". Turned out Thomas was incredibly tough.
Then Tillis went straight in against Greg Page, who was rebounding off his defeat from Berbick and all fired up for once.

Tillis took all the tough matches to get himself back in the queue (Witherspoon in '83), and kept coming up short, until he'd been ground into "opponent" mode.
But those were very tough matches, esp. in retrospect.

 

I agree,

he was a good prospect who was over matched. Whoever was manageing him obviously had exceedingly high expectations, and as a result he was ring worn before his 20's were even over. Tillis might have faired well by facing a string of guys like Leon Spinks, Tex Cobb, an aging Jimmy Young, Gordon Racette and a few other guys of that calibur. The problem is that he was fighting too much on opposite ends of the talent spectrum.. If he wasn't facing the elite of the division, then he was up against men like Bobby Crabtree or Harvey Steichen... He needed to keep his opponent selection on an in between level until his skills, confidence and conditioning could be properly aligned.

 

I used to like Tillis; he got the name Quick because of all the early KOs at the start of his career. As I recall he might have been slight favorite to beat Weaver and nearly pulled it off.

I remember at the time thinking that a draw had done him no real harm and I expected him to contend for titles for a few more years but his career just went on the slide very quickly.

If you read his book he was always full of excuses for his defeats and I just think he didn't have the mental toughness to stay at the top.

He was in the crop of very good 80s HWs like Berbick, Snipes etc who were just a notch or two below Dokes and Page who were considered the heirs to Holmes.

 

James was a crafty capable customer, but after he flopped in his best shot against Mike Weaver, he lost confidence in himself... Great Journeyman though... a fabulous benchmark for any up and coming Contender in the late 80's..

 

The way Page was going in the first, he should've had Tillis out of there.But James caught Greg good in the second, and if it had been maybe twenty or thirty seconds earlier, it could've been an upset.Page was really hurt, and admitted in an interview that Tillis could really hit.

 

Lack of confidence.

He got it late, versus Hercules Weaver, but it was too late.

That fight was winnable,,,,,,,,and 'Quick' blew it.
If he beat Weaver, he gets $3,000,000 to fight Larry Holmes.

 

Sums it up in my book.

 

There've been many, many guys like Tillis, who looked promising but just couldn't cut it at the top level. Can't always blame dedication and all that; he was a solid fighter, kind of the Monte Barrett of his era, but not a bona fide contender. Beat Shavers, who was old, and who would've beaten him had they fought earlier.

 

tillis was a good fighter with good skills. whatching him I always felt he was a frustrated southpaw, he often switched or changed direction with a right jab off the lefty stance. potentialy he was not too far away from the "lost generation" of belt holders talent wise.


He knew the game and once he made his name he made a decision to become a high class journeyman. No shame in that. He'd blown his title shot against weaver and had a name to sell so he took his name on the road.


what was he going to do? build short money wins as a "contender" down the card and hope to keep a ranking or take bigger purses against up and comers as the "opponent" in the main event. titles were sewn up anyway.


A lot of times tillis gave the prospect a low risk workout, went the distance in a main event bout just for the purse. He would be on auto pilot, survival mode, put on a show but not enough to win and come out unhurt ready for the next big thing who wanted to take on a name. Nobody was kicking his ass but he wasnt trying to win and the purses were good.


Against tyson however, quick decided he could use mike (who was geting a lot of exposure) as a springboard into bigger things but it did not quite pay off. he woke up and tried to pull a fast one.


After this he reverted back to his former role. eventualy he just couldnt keep them off him anymore but I think he earned well. good luk to him.


Often there are a lot of world class fighters and not enough b list belts to go around. tillis went for a belt, found his level then wisley decided to go on the road with his name ratherthan knock himself out failing as a contender.

 

Probably lacked the desire to be a real good fighter.Shame, if he won the title against Weaver, we would be talking about him now as one of the best.