Buster Douglas vs Tim Witherspoon

[goose 5]

12 rounds-each man at his peak.

[DrDuke]

The Tyson bout terminator version of Buster Douglas would confidently outbox Witherspoon.

[Ambling Alp II]

OK, anyway, the Witherspoon of the Holmes fight vs the Douglas of the Tyson fight would have been a great fight. Could have gone either way.

Both had a few other fights where they were pretty impressive, and several where they weren't. So it is more than likely that it would not have been a great fight. But at their absolute best, it would have been one.

[Bodyshot3]

I can't call between them based on this premise.

Douglas got it so massively right in Tokyo and maybe reached a level Tim did not get too.

But Tim had several more better nights and his prime was not as short.

Really hard one this......but on balance Witherspoon finds a way.

[Evander]

Like it's been said on this thread, Douglas just happen to have the right performance at the right time against Tyson which will forever have his [Douglas] name written in history.
Who can forget that fight, it really did shake the world of professional boxing no question about it.
That said, Tim Witherspoon was a good fighter and overall I think he could better Douglas so put me down for Tim.

[DrDuke]

Buster Douglas was the of those professionals who fought one great fight in their entire career. Not a series of above-average or very good performances, but rather one, single great fight. Such guys have had their reputations predicated on that one great victory.

He had a decent pre-Tyson winning streak though. Over Mike Williams, who had an only loss then, SD against Tim Witherspoon. Over Oliver McCall, who hadn't become a big name yet. A over fading Trevor Berbick.

[f read]

This is a great matchup. Witherspoon was hit and miss. When he was on though i would say both at best Spoon wins a decision. Buster was an underachiever and that was his achilles heel. He could be great but he was a one fight wonder after winning the upset of the century in his next fight overweight and unmotivated he gets knocked out in 3 rounds.

[scorpio83]

"Terrible" Tim Witherspoon would win a decision in a close fight against Buster Douglas by out-jabbing and out-landing him with heavy punches including his overhand right hands that hurt Douglas several times. Douglas would have his moment, but Witherspoon would land more punches.

[AntonioMartin]

Buster Douglas was the of those professionals who fought one great fight in their entire career. Not a series of above-average or very good performances, but rather one, single great fight. Such guys have had their reputations predicated on that one great victory.

Other famous fighters in this category are Leon Spinks (1978 victory over Ali) and Mike Rossman (1978 TKO over Victor Galindez).

I might have included Billy Backus in this category except that I don't really know if he put on a brilliant performance the night he TKO'd ATG Jose Napoles in 1970. That win was Backus's one and only truly command performance. But, unlike Spinks and Rossman, Backus didn't necessarily outbox and outslug his heavily-favored foe on that day. Rather, it appears that Backus managed to cut Napoles, in a fluky kind of way, and in so doing, emerge as winner by 4th round TKO.

Now that I think about it, another guy who might have qualified as a boxer who fought one, truly great and extraordinarily good performance in his career is Ingemar Johansson, who KO'd Floyd Patterson in three rounds in 1959. But I wonder if this upset really qualifies as a Douglas KO10 Tyson kind of shocker.

You can almost, almost put Oliver McCall in that category as well: His win over super-old Larry Holmes was so close Im not sure you can call it a great win, which only leaves the Lennox Lewis win to stand out.

That said, I have With-a-spoon in this one, by UD.

[Ambling Alp II]

I think you can put McCall in that category.
I don't see why so many people put Douglas in that category though.
Douglas beat McCall, Page, and Berbick. Obviously that is dwarfed by the Tyson win, but it's not like he beat nobody else.

Witherspoon had wins like that, but just a few more of them. I would count 6 of them. Snipes, Page, Smith, Tubbs, Bruno, and Williams. However, four of the 6 were very close decisions that could have gone the other way (Snipes, Page, Tubbs, and Williams.)
In Witherspoon's defense, he gave Holmes all that he could handle. Still, his record is actually pretty even to that of Buster Douglas.

[Nile4000]

Tim by 9th round kayo. Could see Buster out boxing Tim early, but remember, even against Mike, Buster got dropped. Tim starts making things rough for Buster in round 5, and drops him late in round 8. He pours it on in round 9, warranting a stoppage.

[The Docker]

I'd give this to Tim by close to a landslide points margin or late KO. Think Buster is a little worse than popular consensus and Tim a little better than popular consensus. The former definitely overrated and the latter definitely underrated.

[Cutman Scabbers]

This is a great matchup. Witherspoon was hit and miss. When he was on though i would say both at best Spoon wins a decision. Buster was an underachiever and that was his achilles heel. He could be great but he was a one fight wonder after winning the upset of the century in his next fight overweight and unmotivated he gets knocked out in 3 rounds.

I agree with you that this is a great matchup, but not simply that Buster was an underachiever, because he was also an overachiever -- this is what makes him so interesting, psychologically complex. He lost fights he was favored to win, and won fights he was supposed to lose.

So based on this fact -- and the consensus here -- that Witherspoon wins -- I'd pick Buster Douglas by decision.