TYSON FURY, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder wouldn’t fare well in Mike Tyson’s era of heavyweight fighters.
Along with unified champion Oleksandr Usyk, the trio are currently at the top of the heavyweight tree.
The quartet only have four losses to their names between them, but former two-time world champion Tim Witherspoon is convinced they ‘would not last’ in the era of Iron Mike.
He told SunSport: “But a lot of boxers today the thing is they wouldn’t even last if they were fighting in our era.
“Look at the guys Deontay Wilder has fought – all 30 or 40 of them wouldn’t have got OK’d by the Commission to fight me if it was back then.
“He’s got a good right hand but the boxers he’s fought they wouldn’t even let me fight them nor Mike Tyson or Holyfield.
“Same thing with Tyson Fury, there’s not enough really tough heavyweights out there today on our level.
“I was really happy when the Commission told me that I can’t fight four guys that they let Mike Tyson fight!
“When I found that out it kind of motivated me. I’m proud of that.
“I said, OK, there was a big gap between the guy Fury has fought they wouldn’t last with none of us no way near in the top 15 guys in our era, it’s fascinating.”
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Witherspoon reckons the current crop of top heavyweights, bar Usyk – who beat his cousin Chazz in his debut in the division – had far easier routes to title contention than he did.
He said: “Well, the thing is we had a lot more better and tougher fights when we were coming up, it’s just that the business part of our era got messed up – couple of promoters weren’t treating
the boxers well as they treat them today.
“I think the fans aren’t getting the fights that we did back in the day. We don’t see the skill these days but they’re getting more money.
“They’re getting more money and the praises that we should’ve got. I’m not trying to take anything away from them, but I should’ve made way more money back then fighting one of the greatest heavyweight of all-time Larry Holmes.
“I went home with 150,000 dollars. I went home with more money fighting Larry Holmes than when I fought Frank Bruno.
“So, I think the boxers in this era are getting paid really good but the fans aren’t getting the good fights like we had in our days.
“I mean, we set the pace for them.
“We had the heavyweights, middleweights, lightweights, our era was filled with a lot of boxers that drew a lot of fans to the stadiums but it’s just a fact that we got ripped off but there was a lot of exposure but the money side wasn’t like today.
“Today it’s big money I wish I was fighting Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury who are getting all these millions.”
WBC heavyweight king Fury will be back in action next month against former sparring Dillian Whyte.
Uysk and Joshua, meanwhile, were set to have a rematch this year but the pair’s second showdown is in limbo as the Ukrainian champion is his homeland fending off a Russian invasion.
And Wilder has shown no sign of competing after his knockout loss to Fury last October.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
