Witherspoon vs Mercer-A Forgotten Classic

Both threw some nasty body shots !!

 

I loved Spoon and Mercer both so I was super excited for this one back then.. Also felt as though Tim should have got the nod, I remember back then people were saying Mark Roberts (Mecer's manager) was quoted as saying his fighters didn't lose in NJ.. There was also questions about the Briggs-Foreman decision.. Briggs also a fighter under Roberts..

Yeah I hated how Tim was always shoved aside, guys like Dokes and Ferguson got shots at Bowe but no one ever fought Tim.. Foreman fought guys like Schulz and Grimsley but again no room not even once for a shot for a former two time legit belt holder.... sad... Witherspoon was a good fighter who is more remember by many for his one round loss against Bonecrusher rather then some of his big wins.. He spanked Bone in the fight Spoon-Bone fight... Love the Witherspoon KO1 of Anders Ecklund one of my all time favs!!!!

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfVcUCVifI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrfVcUCVifI[/ame]

 

One of my favorite heavyweights to watch is Witherspoon :good

A solid technician who knew how to fight..you weren't going to surprise him. Those Philadelphia gym wars are what did it to so many guys back than ,and they were avoided understandably.

 

A superb war. Here's my scores...

Witherspoon-Mercer '96

Round 1: W

Round 2: W

Round 3: W

Round 4: M

Round 5: W

Round 6: W

Round 7: W

Round 8: M

Round 9: W

Round 10: M

Total: 7-3 Witherspoon

Note: Many rounds were very close, but i thought Spoon took it, due to his more accurate punching & due to him landing more powerpunches. Also, i thought the difference in accuracy was greatly aided by Spoon's good use of his quality block, which allowed him to block many jabs on his gloves.


CompuBox Punchstat:

Landed. Witherspoon: 280, Mercer: 255

Thrown. Witherspoon: 471, Mercer: 528

Percentage. Witherspoon: 59%, Mercer: 48%

__________________

 

wow. they were close in size. Mercer fought shorter than Tim.

 

on a good night witherspoon could fight like a great fighter. He beat frank buno in his biggest fight with about 30% of what he showed here. His best performance was against bonecrusher first time around.

 

I' need to rewatch it ... really remember it as an old Witherspoon fighting an oldish Mercer .. worth checking out again ..

 

Yeah its a nasty one, I love it!!

Speaking of bad decisions... Does anyone remember Witherspoon vs Carl Williams I have not seen the fight in ages, its is somewhere in my collection.. I remember Spoon got the nod but when I watched it live I felt like Carl was robbed... If memory serves one of them (I think Spoon) has a badly swollen eye... I don't remember it being a great fight, but its still interesting since they are two of my faves from the 80's-90's...

 

To me out of all the forgotten heavyweight champs of the 80's, tim witherspoon had the most potential

 

Agreed! :good

 

Another fight that shows Ray's granite chin. Witherspoon took some bombs too! Very entertaining fight