Willie de Wit, whats the story on this guy..........

ferocity · Post by **ferocity** » 25 Feb 2006, 17:46

He had a record of 21-1-1, 13 ko's and after he lost to bert cooper. Wit then went on a 6 fight win streak and then retired, Why? How good was he?

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 25 Feb 2006, 21:53

I remeber him as a decorated amateur, I think he represented Canada in the olympics. He was highly educated. He has a Law degree and he is probably putting that to use. He probably felt he had other options in life besides boxing and he got out after avenging his Olympic loss to Henry Tillman.

ferocity · Post by **ferocity** » 25 Feb 2006, 22:15

Thanks for the info.

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 25 Feb 2006, 23:14

cheers

Randineous · Post by **Randineous** » 26 Feb 2006, 02:48

expug wrote:I remeber him as a decorated amateur, I think he represented Canada in the olympics. He was highly educated. He has a Law degree and he is probably putting that to use. He probably felt he had other options in life besides boxing and he got out after avenging his Olympic loss to Henry Tillman.

They had a special on DeWitt which was broadcast on CBC up here in Canada a couple of years ago, and what you say is pretty much spot on. He did go on to pursue a career in law and if I'm remembering the show correctly, DeWitt now has his own firm up in Edmonton, where I believe he's a sports lawyer mostly.

He's always had other options in life though, as his family was fairly well-to-do growing up. If I'm not mistaken, his father even owned his own small airline company or something along those lines.

After taking that vicious beating at the hands of Cooper, it seemed to me that DeWitt lost a little something for the sport, which may have been apparent in the rather lackluster performance against Tillman in his last fight. He won that fight, but to me he lacked that "fire" that was usually prevailant in a bunch of his earlier fights. DeWitt may have realized or felt that too, therefore making his decision to retire that much easier.

ferocity · Post by **ferocity** » 26 Feb 2006, 04:57

Randineous wrote:
expug wrote:I remeber him as a decorated amateur, I think he represented Canada in the olympics. He was highly educated. He has a Law degree and he is probably putting that to use. He probably felt he had other options in life besides boxing and he got out after avenging his Olympic loss to Henry Tillman.
They had a special on DeWitt which was broadcast on CBC up here in Canada a couple of years ago, and what you say is pretty much spot on. He did go on to pursue a career in law and if I'm remembering the show correctly, DeWitt now has his own firm up in Edmonton, where I believe he's a sports lawyer mostly.

He's always had other options in life though, as his family was fairly well-to-do growing up. If I'm not mistaken, his father even owned his own small airline company or something along those lines.

After taking that vicious beating at the hands of Cooper, it seemed to me that DeWitt lost a little something for the sport, which may have been apparent in the rather lackluster performance against Tillman in his last fight. He won that fight, but to me he lacked that "fire" that was usually prevailant in a bunch of his earlier fights. DeWitt may have realized or felt that too, therefore making his decision to retire that much easier.

What type of fighter was he? Did he fight at heavyweight, and how did he fair against Cooper besides the ko?

pound per pound · Post by **pound per pound** » 01 Mar 2006, 11:58

DeWitt was Canada's version of Duanne Bobbick. Well not really, but you get the idea. Dewitt rose to fame in the 1984 Olympics, capturing a silver medal at heavyweight. However many nations including Cuba and the Soviet Union boycotted the games. I tend to doubt DeWitt would do any better than bronze vs a full field of international boxers. Side note. Dewitt defeated a young Lennox Lewis in the amateurs.

As a pro DeWitt was decent. He was a bit small though. Punchers could walk right through him. As others mentioned, DeWitt is doing well outside the ring.

bollox · Post by **bollox** » 03 Mar 2006, 17:41

I remember seeing a KO magazine with DeWitt on the cover, not long after the LA olympics. He's standing in a menacing fighting pose and behind him is a brick wall with "tell 'em Willie boy is here" scribbled as graffiti

Well, he certainly was there. For a while anyway. Cruisin' Cooper soon derailed him and off he rode into the sunset not long after. There's a huge element of pure 'truth' in taking a beating like the one he sustained from Cooper. As an upperclass fighter he was always going to be up against the odds. Full credit for giving the boxing caper a try

happynormal · Post by **happynormal** » 05 Mar 2006, 02:56

Hi y'all! This is my first post, and I'm from Canada, same as Willie DeWitt.

So I was naturally a big fan of his from his Olympic victory up till his last fight. However, at that time, I was a new fan of boxing, and what I didn't know then was that he was a slow, sloppy boxer, and never beat anyone worth mentioning.

Basically, the guys Willie beat also never beat anyone who beat anyone good either, except Tillman, who beat Uriah Grant - but it was Grant's first professional fight!

So when Willie would stand or plod there with his left hand way down as if he was Ali, without any of Ali's movement or handspeed, Bert Cooper's big right naturally put him down- over, and over, and over, and over again.

But I still have fond memories of that time. At least we had a few Canadians since then who really could fight...