BoxRec

I would please like to know how good is former WBA Heavyweight Champion the late Big John Tate in his strength and weakness in a little specific details?

I heard Tate can stick, moving around with his jabs, and threw combinations was his strength, right? But what was his weakness? Can you please tell me?

[quote="mercman"]I have heard Tate criticised as having a poor chin and remember him being KO'd by Mike Weaver in losing his WBA Title. It was as clean a KO as I have ever seen: Tate was sparked out cold. I think people base their criticism of Tate on this although he was also stopped by Trevor Berbick. However, accusations of a glass jaw seem harsh as these were the only two occasions Tate was stopped in a pretty long career and the Weaver punch would have knocked a house down.

Tate finished his career pretty miserably though, weighing over 280lbs and getting outpointed by British journeyman Noel Quarless. He was way past it by this stage though.[/quote]


He was also knocked cold at least once as an amateur. There is footage available of a bloke called Chapman (I think) doing the business.

Collins2000 wrote:

mercman wrote:I have heard Tate criticised as having a poor chin and remember him being KO'd by Mike Weaver in losing his WBA Title. It was as clean a KO as I have ever seen: Tate was sparked out cold. I think people base their criticism of Tate on this although he was also stopped by Trevor Berbick. However, accusations of a glass jaw seem harsh as these were the only two occasions Tate was stopped in a pretty long career and the Weaver punch would have knocked a house down.

Tate finished his career pretty miserably though, weighing over 280lbs and getting outpointed by British journeyman Noel Quarless. He was way past it by this stage though.

He was also knocked cold at least once as an amateur. There is footage available of a bloke called Chapman (I think) doing the business.

Teofilio Stevenson knocked him out in the Olympics, too, and he lost to Marvin Stinson and Michael Dokes.

mercman wrote:I didn't know about the amateur stuff. Was his loss to Berbick also a straight KO? Maybe he did have a weaker chin than I thought. Mind you, Tate did fight and beat a number of big punchers such as Gerrie Coetzee, Kallie Knoetze and Duane Bobick before he won the WBA Title.

Berbick knocked out Tate by hitting him in the back of the head. A very weird knockout but Tate was on his stomach talking to Pacheo but seemed unable to roll over and looked like he was paralised from the waist down from that shot from Berbick.

Regarding Tate he was a good boxer but had average power, i have his KO over Bobick which is an impressive knockout but his power failed to faze Coetzee and after that Tate boxed defensivly in a boring fight. Coetzee tired in the later rounds and Tate swept them to win a close decision.