I am confident in my position and that my standpoints are well backed up in every discussion that I have ever had on this board. The fact that you feel the need to follow people around like a child who can't take no for an answer is telling of your convictions.
Tyson would've put Dokes out of his misery in about four or five rounds at the time.Dokes was not the same fighter of his youth when Tyson ascended to the throne, and was never a strong hitter to begin with.
First of all, weren't his losses to Larry Holmes and Pinklon Thomas very close decisions? Isn't it arguable that his fight with bonecrusher was 'fixed'. I've heard before he was paid to take a dive.
I think this wouldve been one of the great heavyweight fights of the eighties if it had happened in 86 Tyson wins in war that lasts 8 or 9 rounds & Spoon has a few moments after surviving the initial onslaught
IDK if Witherspoon's loss 2 Smith was a dive or not and don't have a solid opinion on it , however i did score Spoon vs Thomas 120-118 in favor of Spoon , and convinced about my scoring in this case , it was clear . i do think that Witherspoon , Dokes & Page were intentionally avoided by Tyson's camp , while Thomas , Dokes , Page & Coetzee , as well as a Norton , Witherspoon & Williams rematches were intentionally avoided by Holmes . Tyson's supporters has d better arguments as 2 y Tyson did not avoid them , while Holmes legacy is on par with Ali's : it slightly surpasses Ali's in terms of careful management , equates it in terms of board of judges' favorism , and only slightly behind it in terms of inside d ring foul play .
As far as I remember, there's never been any news that Witherspoon had a "massive drug problem". He tested positive for marijuana once. I've never seen any report that he had a problem with cocaine or heroin, ever arrested on drug-related charges, ever mentioned a drug problem, ever went to rehab. Dokes, Thomas, Tubbs, Tucker, B.Cooper, T.Biggs - yes, they had drugs problems. But as far as I've heard, Witherspoon never did.
Witherspoon was mandated to give Tubbs rematch for failing a drugs test following their initial bout. Of course Tubbs pulled out and Smith got the fight instead.
That's terrible (oh dear, I think I made an unintentional pun lol). Tim Witherspoon gave a just-past-his-prime Larry Holmes a very hard fight and almost won. He also beat Page (yawn), Williams (double yawn), beat up the super-chinny Bruno, Tubbs (what a lame fight) and wiped out Tillis. That was mostly it. I daresay all the other guys besides Tillis had a good chance to beat Tim had there been a rematch (look what happened in Page and Smith II). Mike beat both Smith and Thomas, both of whom beat Tim (of course the former knocked the crap out of Tim and exposed his some of his flaws). Mike also beat Bruno (twice, the second time quite a bit later of course). He won the "championship" twice, neither were big deal wins at all, the last one was briefly marketed as a video-substitute for No-Doz. In other words, Tim was no match for Mike and even if he really was, he had been mostly known as a boring fighter (since Holmes there was the dazzling Tillis smackdown for thrills and...well, not a whole lot else). Tyson would have mowed him over, and Tim most certainly would have looked worse than he did against Bonecrusher. No point in it....I had temporarily stopped watching boxing and when I came back I was personally shocked he won the belt again...once I found out it was against Tubbs (and, even worse, saw that godawful fight) I realized just how much of a joke the belts he won were. King probably felt there were already enough lame contenders in the top 10 for Mike to blow out. And there certainly would have been less of an audience for that fight than, say, the Mitch Green yawn-fest.
No idea why didn't happen, Tyson looks bad on his way to an awkward but clear UD A la Tucker and Smith.
I'm completely with you on the win, but if Tim got wiped out by Smith, Mike would have made him look significantly worse imo. It might have gone two rounds. Witherspoon was mostly a big yawn as a fighter. I wouldn't have even tuned in for that fight. Thus, little reason to employ a historically boring fighter (two-time champ ha ha) or not. Whenever I hear or mention Tim and that "two time champ" thing I cringe. Holmes was still the champion, everybody I knew in boxing back then knew it. And then Tyson.
Witherspoon was a guy I thought could beat Mike. And he blew it, some might say because Smith was told to unload on Witherspoon early in their rematch, but that was Tim's fault. Fact is Tim was durable and he hit hard and was a big enough heavyweight by 1980s standards, yet not so big for 2019 standards, yet he was all around very solid. Not as good as Larry consistency wise and skilled, but bigger than Larry which I thought would have helped him with Mike-almost to do better than Larry. Remember this, size is what helped Douglas If Tim were motivated I would have been worried about a Tyson/Witherspoon to the point I would probably pick Tim. I really did think Witherspoon was the guy Mike missed out fighting and who could have upset him. I think it is possible that King knew how good Tim was when motivated and found a way to avoid Tim-as for fighting Mike. It is possible.Tim was not Larry Holmes but I think skillwise he was in between the skill of Larry and the other guys who held titles like Pinklon or Berbick or Dokes etc. Just a notch better than the guys Tyson fought and defended against which were good. But a notch better than Berbick, Smith, Tucker, Tubbs. Bruno. etc. And he was bigger than Larry naturally. So the skill better than most guys Tyson fought then and size more than Larry -this variable the size, which to me meant a lot when guys fought Tyson. That was the key. Size and power and durability.
tim like smith and tucker could certainly survive against mike, but arguing he would win outright is something else. He had the equipment to eek out a SD perhaps. On the other hand, if Smith can walk through him, Tyson does it twice as fast.
Let's say Tim gets his act together and meets Tyson in summer of 1989. He could make Tyson really work for his money . If spoon really wants this win then he's going to have a few glory rounds where he s really connection with Tyson s chin, remember at this point, Mike's getting sloppy. But, I believe spoons life style, money woes and Tysons attack grinds him down, and the fight ends, in a similar fashion as Tyson - Thomas, with Spoon taking a boat load of shots before going down. Tyson wko 7.
Bonecrusher kod Witherspoon for the WBA title so he got the unification fight against Tyson. Then, Witherspoon left King and sued him, ensuring he would never get a title shot in a fight promoted by King. Tyson would have won, but a fit and focused Witherspoon, which hardly ever happened, had the tools to make it quite competitive.
