Thanks again to Jeff Heimberger for the idea for the recurring series and if you missed the first installment over a year ago-click here.
In an era of 45 sanctioning bodies and billions of titles,would you believe that as recently as 1986,only three men had ever held the heavyweight title twice?
Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson were Olympic gold medalists and boxing hall of famers,but the name Tim Witherspoon stands out as an unusual addition to that triangle.
After a limited amateur career,Witherspoon made a name as a sparring partner for Muhammad Ali and first got the attention of the boxing community with a decision win over amateur standout Marvin Stinson and a knockout win over Alfonzo Ratliff,who would later become one of the better cruiserweights of the decade.
Witherspoon would then be signed with Don King,who owned the contract of most of the top heavyweight contenders.
King would put Witherspoon in a position to win a title,but he would also add to the lack of motivation and perhaps cost him his peak fighting years.
In Witherspoon's first fight with King,he decisioned Renaldo Snipes over ten rounds.
Snipes had just challenged Larry Holmes for the title and had dropped Holmes,so the win over Snipes made Witherspoon as credible of a challenger as anyone else at the time.
Holmes-Witherspoon was the main event of the first ever pay per view card entitled the Crown Affair with Michael Dokes defending his WBA title against Mike Weaver among other heavyweight bouts.
Despite his light resume,Witherspoon and his awkward crosshanded defense negated the Holmes jab,taking away the top weapon of the champion and took Holmes to the cards,where Holmes won a narrow split decision.
I scored it a draw and the bout could have went either way,but it cemented Witherspoon at the top of the division.
Witherspoon would follow up the close defeat with two wins,the more notable being a one round blitz of James "Quick" Tillis,which slotted him in line for the vacant WBC title after Larry Holmes vacated rather than fight Greg Page.
Page and Witherspoon as the top two contenders were chosen to face off and in a rough,mauling type of fight (which is exactly how Page shouldn't have fought),Witherspoon took the title with a majority decision.
The title reign wouldn't last long as Pinklon Thomas used a harder jab to blow through the crosshanded defense and take a majority decision and the title away from Witherspoon.
Terrible Tim bounced back with five straight wins including a second round blowout of James Broad and a decision win over "Bonecrusher" Smith to earn a WBA title shot against Tony Tubbs,who had won that belt over Greg Page,who had lost the above mentioned WBC title fight to Witherspoon.
Do you see now just how crazy the heavyweight scene was after Holmes and before Tyson?
The same guys fought each other all the time in the same less than exciting fights and often the fights were determined by who was in shape and who wasn't.
The Tubbs-Witherspoon fight was another similar bout from Atlanta's Omni,which was used to heavyweight bouts in the squared circle being the host of Jim Crockett Promotions at the same time.
Witherspoon earned the 15 round majority decision as the WBA and IBF were still using the 15 round distance,while the WBC had started the 12 round movement.
A title defense against England's very popular Frank Bruno at Wembley Stadium ended in an 11th round knockout with Witherspoon using his chopping overhand right to finish Bruno in a corner in an impressive win.
Witherspoon was trying to break away from Don King before the contractually mandated rematch with Tubbs at Madison Square Garden and when a few weeks before the bout,King inserted harder hitting (and previous Witherspoon victim) Bonecrusher Smith in his place.
Witherspoon tried to postpone the fight,was not allowed,came in extremely unprepared and out of shape and lost his belt in one round.
That fiasco saw Witherspoon lose his belt,his deal with King and more importantly a huge payday that went to Smith to unify the two titles with Mike Tyson.
Witherspoon would never fight for the title again,although he would pop up with an occasional win to keep him on periphery of contention.
His one round knockout of Anders Eklund on USA's Tuesday Night Fights showed up on boxing highlight reels for years after afterward,but never got him a larger stage.
Tim Witherspoon had much of what it took to be a popular champion.
He hit reasonably hard with a right hand that was easy to imitate and had an engaging personality,so he should have been better than he was.
However he was a fighter of his time,so his lack of willingness to train along with his consistent promotional problems made him one of so many of those "lost generation" of heavyweights that was bound to disappoint......
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