Who is the best ABC champ from the 80's, personally i clearly think its between these two. If witherspoon retired after 1991, he would have had a good legacy, i mean the guy has beat alot of contenders. Personally i think he's better than ken norton and earnie shavers. Tucker was an awesome fighter too, infact hes the best guy tyson beat.
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IMO witherspoon beat a fading holmes so should have got his championship but i do think tucker was a more effective fighterOriginally posted by brownpimp88 View Post -
agreed, Holmes was fading by 83', Tucker was the best among abc champs but he came during Tyson's era while witherspoon was part of the Holmes era.Comment
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Witherspoon has the better resume and was a better fighter than Tony Tucker.Originally posted by brownpimp88 View Post
Witherspoon defeated contenders Renaldo Snipes, James Tillis, Greg Page, James Broad, Bonecrusher Smith, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno and Carl 'The Truth' Williams and also arguably beat a very good version of Larry Holmes.
We rarely saw Witherspoon in decent shape, but the tools were there. Trained by Slim Jim Robinson, Spoon had a good chin, good power, tight cross-arm defence, good stamina and was physically strong. He was probably the best prospect from the 80's alongside Greg Page and Michael Dokes.Comment
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dont know how good Michael Dokes is, some say he lost to Weaver in the rematch and he got knockout by gerrie coetzee, Holmes did say Dokes would have been a tough opponent for him, the dynamite's career was ruined by alcoholic problems.Comment
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Spoon was sick! A notch above the talented Tucker!Comment
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I'd certainly rate Witherspoon over Tucker, for sure...ditto for Pinklon Thomas, who at his peak (not the Tyson fight...Thomas showed signs of slipping some in each of the few fights before that) was and still is considered a better heavyweight by me than was Tucker at his peak, and interesting enough, Thomas was the only one of the alphabet boys from the 80's to have found themselves included on the p4p ratings (obviously I'm not including the true 80's champs like Holmes, Tyson or Spinks with that statement. Nor am I including the July of 1981 issue of Boxing Illustrated, which ranked the 25 best fighters in the sport with Mike Weaver included towards the bottom of that list in the 23rd spot, I believe).
If Page or Dokes even accomplish half of what was generally expected of them when they were still in the "prospect" stages of their careers, then this thread doesn't make an appearance in todays' age.
P.S. Out of all the alpha titlists in the 80's, Weaver was my personal favourite.Comment
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Spoon, definetly, for the reasons SABBATH outlined. Tucker was an 80's/90's version of Joe Bugner, nothing more.Comment
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Originally posted by K-DOGG View Post
actually bugner was the 80's version of bugner!
tucker certainly had alot of talent but in the tyso fight he showed his lack of heart when he stopped trying to fight and began to just try to survive.
head to head i think tucker would beat witherspoon but i do think witherspoon is more of a championComment
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