Tim Witherspoon

Tim Witherspoon
Data
Birth Name	Tim Witherspoon
Fight name	Terrible
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	December 27, 1957
place of birth	Philadelphia
style	Left delivery
size	1.92 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	69
Victories	55
Knockout victories	38
Defeats	13
draw	1

Tim Witherspoon (born December 27, 1957 in Philadelphia ) is an American boxer and former two-time world heavyweight champion.

career

Tim Witherspoon, fighting name Terrible , only had 7 amateur fights and lost one fight. He suffered the defeat against Marvis Frazier , the son of Joe Frazier .

He began his professional career in 1979. Only three years later, on May 20, 1982, he boxed after a points victory over Renaldo Snipes with only fifteen professional fights for the WBC World Heavyweight Championship against Larry Holmes and lost controversially on points.

In 1983 he defeated James "Quick" Tillis by technical knockout in round 1.

On March 9, 1984 he got the chance to box against Greg Page for the now vacant WBC belt. Title holder Holmes previously did not want to compete against both, so that he was ultimately stripped of the title. Instead, Holmes took the belt of the newly formed IBF . Witherspoon won the fight against Page on points and became world champion for the first time.

The joy did not last long, however, because in his first title defense on August 31, 1984, he lost his belt to the undefeated Pinklon Thomas . With a knockout against the amateur star James Broad (record 17-1) and a point win against James "Bonecrusher" Smith , he reported back in 1985.

In January 1986 he won the WBA World Championship against Tony Tubbs . He successfully defended this title on July 19, 1986 against Frank Bruno at Wembley Stadium by technical knockout in the eleventh round.

In his second defense of the title, however, he lost the belt to James "Bonecrusher" Smith. The prevailing opinion was that he had underestimated Smith as he had clearly beaten him on points in the previous encounter. So he was knocked out in the first round.

After this fight he was never able to build on previous performances. However, his descent was in waves, sometimes he lost to less likely opponents, then he showed surprisingly good performances again. In 1991 he won points against the very strong Carl Williams and in 2001 at the age of 43 he won points against Eliecer Castillo . In 2003 he resigned from boxing.

His second cousin, Chazz Witherspoon , turned pro in 2004.

Web links

• Tim Witherspoon in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Larry Holmes	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) March 9, 1984–31. August 1984	Pinklon Thomas
Tony Tubbs	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) January 17, 1986-12. December 1986	James "Bonecrusher" Smith