Trevor Berbick

[GL14]

How do you rate him?

Losses to Mercado, Holmes, Tyson, Snipes, Gordon, Williams, Douglas

Wins over Tate, Ali (I know), Page, Bey, Green, Thomas

[Ambling Alp II]

There really wasn't any one thing that was particularly impressive about him, but he was a decent fighter. Seldom gets mentioned, but he belongs in the mix with the other top heavyweights of the 1980s except for Tyson and Holmes.

As mentioned he fought a lot of the other top guys and won enough to show that he was in the mix. Probably gets overlooked because of the Tyson disaster and that he wasn't that fun to watch.

[bigcheese]

He was a pretty good fighter. It was very impressive of tyson to destroy him like he was a total bum.

[BoxBuzz]

Wasn't his best fight out in the parking lot with Larry?

[Woller]

Wasn't his best fight out in the parking lot with Larry?

No

[drunkenpiper36]

How do you rate him?

Losses to Mercado, Holmes, Tyson, Snipes, Gordon, Williams, Douglas

Wins over Tate, Ali (I know), Page, Bey, Green, Thomas

The Marcado defeat came when he was a dozen fight prospect while the Williams and Douglas fights came past prime. Only a select handful of people beat him at his best, and most of them elite.. The snipes battle was a war. he was lazy in the gordon bout. His wins over Tate, Page, Thomas, Green, and Bey top the win lists of a of 80's heavy's. Good fighter in my opinion.

[Ambling Alp II]

I think the Williams fight damaged his reputation even though he was getting old. He just looked awful in that fight (it wasn't as close as the judges scorecards.) That fight was a preliminary to Tyson-Spinks so a lot of people saw the fight.

His performance against Holmes was decent; he wasn't completely dominated like most of Holmes' opponents in Holmes prime.
He record against the rest is enough to rate him right with Page, Witherspoon, Thomas, Dokes,Weaver Coetzee etc. They were all roughly even.
Berbick always seems to be lost in the shuffle and gets less attention than these guys.

[drunkenpiper36]

I think the Williams fight damaged his reputation even though he was getting old. He just looked awful in that fight (it wasn't as close as the judges scorecards.) That fight was a preliminary to Tyson-Spinks so a lot of people saw the fight.

His performance against Holmes was decent; he wasn't completely dominated like most of Holmes' opponents in Holmes prime.
He record against the rest is enough to rate him right with Page, Witherspoon, Thomas, Dokes,Weaver Coetzee etc. They were all roughly even.
Berbick always seems to be lost in the shuffle and gets less attention than these guys.

Perhaps his fighting out of Canada had something to do with less media attention, but I don't know. I agree that he was outclassed against Williams as well as Douglas. The Pinklon Thomas fight was probably the last time anyone saw a decent version of Berbick.

[Tuan_Jim]

Trevor Berbick is such an underrated pug. He could routinely overcome more gifted fighters with an effective use of bullish violence. The Mercado result in no way represents the boxer he became. The strange ST Gordon fight was obviously a day when the voices in Tervor's head were blathering away and distracting him from his work. But the beast who rampaged over undefeated Greg Page, undefeated Pinklon Thomas, John Tate, David Bey and Mitch 'Blood' Green was a threat to just about any heavyweight. The war with Renaldo Snipes was outstanding and his spirited challenge of Larry Holmes looks very good when considering the whole of the Easton Assassin's career. It baffles me to this day that anyone thought it was a good idea to match Ali's brittle cadaver with Trevor Berbick.

He was 35 by the time he fought Williams, 36 for Douglas. Too old. Williams and Douglas both had chinks in the psyche, of the sort the prime Berbick would usually sense early, and start piling on the pressure. That Tyson easily whacked such an awkward, crafty, difficult powerhouse says a lot about how deadly he was. Hasim Rahman unloaded the right hand that KOd Lennox Lewis on an ancient, bloated Berbick and he got up at one. And came back to rough Rahman up the next round! A tough crazy bastard.

[Ambling Alp II]

The big wins that you mentioned never seem to get much attention. I don't think he was quite that old when he fought Williams and Douglas. (boxrec has him at 33 and 34) but yeah he was on the downhill.

Like so many other guys of the era, he was inconsistent. You watch some of his fights and he does look like a tough guy who managed to beat some talented guys. Then there are fights where he looked like a stiff. Overall, you could make a serious argument that he was the #3 heavyweight of the 1980s. You could also argue that he wasn't in the top 10. There are so many that were so close.
Some guys seem to remembered mostly for one fight. For Tim Witherspoon, it is the Holmes fight. Unfortunately for Berbick, it is the Tyson debacle.
One interesting trivia question is who did he succeed as the Canadian Champion?

[drunkenpiper36]

The big wins that you mentioned never seem to get much attention. I don't think he was quite that old when he fought Williams and Douglas. (boxrec has him at 33 and 34) but yeah he was on the downhill.

Like so many other guys of the era, he was inconsistent. You watch some of his fights and he does look like a tough guy who managed to beat some talented guys. Then there are fights where he looked like a stiff. Overall, you could make a serious argument that he was the #3 heavyweight of the 1980s. You could also argue that he wasn't in the top 10. There are so many that were so close.
Some guys seem to remembered mostly for one fight. For Tim Witherspoon, it is the Holmes fight. Unfortunately for Berbick, it is the Tyson debacle.
One interesting trivia question is who did he succeed as the Canadian Champion?

Wasn't Gordon Racette Canada's champion right around the time he fought Berbick? I'm not real well schooled on "French Canadian British Empire commonwealth Klondike mounty" Champions. LOL.. But anyway, I do believe he held that belt on a few separate occasions and as already mentioned, beat a king's share of quality contenders.. Interesting factoid, He fought 8 men who at one point in time or another held a heavyweight world title, and defeated 4 of them making for a record of 4-4 against world champions.. The only one of which who was past his best was Muhammad Ali.. Not bad really.

[dempseyfire]

Berbick is one of those guys who yes had no real special attributes but was solid all-around and could beat some very good fighters. He always came into fights in great shape, was pretty fast and athletic, and also pretty good head movement for a guy who started boxing late. He often kind of 'slapped' with his hooks but when he turned his shots over he was a decent puncher. And he was a big solid guy, 6'2 but in top shape around 218 lbs.

I'd confidently pick Berbick to defeat any current heavyweight besides Klitschko.

[Seamus]

He was kind of unpredictable. Some real solid performances against Tate, Page, and Thomas, but looked awful against Cruiserweight ST Gordon.

[BoxBuzz]

Wasn't his best fight out in the parking lot with Larry?

No

True....but it's probably what he's best known for. lol. That and his lucky break that a very worn/aged Ali decided to come back to take a beating for a price.

[Tuan_Jim]

He's best known for the startling manner of his loss to Tyson. Among the most famous images in sport.

[evrenb]

His fight with Bobby Crabtree is an absolute classic - he was hurt by an attack early but boy did he hammer Crabtree unmercifully. He seemed to have huge power at this level. Never the elite end of fighters but best of the rest. In his prime he beat a virtually dead Ali by a small margin. That ought to tell you something...

[dempseyfire]

His fight with Bobby Crabtree is an absolute classic - he was hurt by an attack early but boy did he hammer Crabtree unmercifully. He seemed to have huge power at this level. Never the elite end of fighters but best of the rest. In his prime he beat a virtually dead Ali by a small margin. That ought to tell you something...

Oh come on, the judging in that fight was atrocious. Ali won 2 rounds at most.

[Tuan_Jim]

His fight with Bobby Crabtree is an absolute classic - he was hurt by an attack early but boy did he hammer Crabtree unmercifully. He seemed to have huge power at this level. Never the elite end of fighters but best of the rest. In his prime he beat a virtually dead Ali by a small margin. That ought to tell you something...

Evren... Rewatch the fight. Berbick won 8 or 9 rounds. Muhammad Ali is incredible enough without us needing to exaggerate his last gasps in the ring. That being said, that he refused to quit in the face of Berbick's unmerciful pummeling is astonishing.

The Crabtree fight is fun. Whenever Berbick loaded up he looked like a silverback attacking. I seem to recall Williams nearly wilting when he began to let his fists fly around the 8th, 9th rds.

[Rexob]

He will be remembered for the tyson fight end of.

[BoxBuzz]

He will be remembered for the tyson fight end of.

Yep, I suppose so, Tyson bounced him pretty well.

[Cap]

I recall watching him fight ST Gordon. He looked like he was drugged. Hardly threw a punch, just covering up. Very very strange performance.

[Syntax Error]

He will be remembered for the tyson fight end of.

Sadly, you're right.

His loss to Tyson, IMHO, is the 3rd most iconic clip in boxing in HW; third only to Ali getting flattened by Frazier's monster Left hook, but sill managing to get straight up with that massive haematoma on his jaw & of course, Tyson himself, fumbling around on the floor for his gumshield after Douglas downed him with a beautiful straight Right.

[Sklar]

Like so many from that era, he'd have been all the more successful had he kept his nose clean, so to speak.

[Nile4000]

Trevor was a damned good fighter for a couple of years, though he caught Page at the right time.

[fastjack]

..he was inconsistent...at times looked pretty good. drunken guy on this forum has it right.h was best against pinklon thomas. pinky still had that good jab...but, as thomas said "i kept hitting him with my best shots and he kept on coming."