By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing

Two-time world heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon (55-13-1, 38 KOs) spoke to Peter Maniatis about his fights with Larry Holmes, Greg Page, Tony Tubbs, Frank Bruno, Carl Williams and Jimmy Thunder, plus working as a sparring partner to Muhammad All and meeting Don King and Mike Tyson to resolve a financial dispute.

LARRY HOLMES

I only had seven amateur fights and (fourteen professional fights when offered fight with Larry Holmes) and I had only just left university for playing American football – everything was so fast and so quick. I didn’t have enough time to take it in. I just had to go forward. At the time Don King offered us the Larry Holmes fight – I told my trainer – ‘isn’t that a little too soon?’ My trainer (Slim Jim Robinson ) was a good trainer. He said ‘You are going to whip his behind.’ As soon as he said that – I said ‘let’s go.’ Everything was so fast and so quick – if I didn’t have a good trainer like Slim Jim Robinson I don’t think I could have been ready for this fight – he probably could have knocked me out or beat me up so I was really looking forward to it. I had confidence in my trainer and when he said ‘you are going to whip his butt’ – that’s was started me in the right direction.

(Larry Holmes won a disputed twelve round split decision over Tim Witherspoon on May 20,1983)

GREG PAGE

At the time – it was a great achievement- fighting for the titles and stuff. But there were a lot of negative things that were happening at that time. I’m fighting Greg Page and Greg Page was upset about his promoter and I was upset with things with my promoter. So we went into a championship fight – not knowing the outcome unless we knock each other out. He was upset and I was upset. It was an okay fight. We were both unhappy. Isn’t that something. I stopped being unhappy with the promoter and let Greg take a lot of the flak because Greg was upset and I was upset. So I kept quiet and I won by decision and this is some of the things that were happening during that time. I think that was the fight when the IRS came and took my money and I had to borrow $8000 from Don King. I asked for $10,000 and he gave me $8000 and here I am the heavyweight champion of the world.

(Witherspoon won a twelve round majority decision over Greg Page for the vacant WBC heavyweight championship March 1984)

TONY TUBBS

Tony Tubbs was a really nice person. I had met him before – we used to train in Don King’s camp together and we knew we had to fight each other. He was on one side and I was on the other side. But you know how it is – you don’t have to kill somebody when the fight is over. It’s a sport that we all are in. When it comes time to fight – we have to try and get the victory. Personally walking down the street he was a nice guy but when it came time to fight we would try and kill each other and be victorious so that was a good fight but there was a lot of negativity when the fight was over.

(Witherspoon won a fifteen round majority decision over Tony Tubbs on January 1986 for the WBA heavyweight championship)

FRANK BRUNO

It was something I had really dreamed of. Going into someone’s backyard defending my title. It was like playing American football and going into someone’s backyard it was always a good feeling about winning. When we went over there man it was crazy. When we came to the airport – there were so many people at the airport. I had never had that treatment before. There were women escorting us through security. That’s when I realized how big the fight was. Everywhere we went it was Witherspoon and Bruno – Witherspoon and Bruno. It was real big. I was looking forward to that fight. I came out victorious – it was a hard fight. After the fight, we almost got killed leaving the stadium. You know how it is in England. If you beat someone the fans go crazy. They were trying to kill us over there. We almost didn’t make it. We had 20 security guards – 6’10 and 6’11, 260 pounds. If we didn’t have them – we wouldn’t be here today.
We had a party the next couple of days and the English people all got together and we were all hugging and kissing. Rejoicing and having fun. People were mad because they were supporting Frank Bruno and they wanted him to win but afterward we really found out how nice the people were over there.

(Witherspoon stopped Frank Bruno in round eleven to retain the WBA heavyweight title on July 19, 1986.)

CARL “THE TRUTH” WILLIAMS

Carl “The Truth” Williams was running a lot during the fight. He had a good right hand. He hurt me with that right hand. If you watch the video – he caught me with a right hand. He is the only one who got a good shot on me. He snuck that right hand in. But that’s all he had. He had a good jab. But as far as getting in close and banging he wasn’t good at that. He was good at keeping you out there and catching you with that right hand. So he ran a lot during the fight – my eye was swollen. It was a good experience- I had never fought a guy like him before. He was ready for the fight and he didn’t want to lose. But I was ready to take it to him and win that fight.

(Witherspoon won twelve round split decision over Carl Williams for USBA title on March 8, 1991.)

JIMMY THUNDER

Jimmy was a really nice guy. You told me he has passed away – I felt bad. Jimmy was really nice. When I fought him – I underestimated him because I had seen him in a couple of fights and he didn’t appear to be a threat. He was muscular and strong and his skills were okay. I definitely had more skills than him. I underestimated him. Later on, he did really well but I underestimated him. I really should have trained harder and prepared myself for that fight. He was game and a really nice guy that’s what I remember. He was strong and he could punch. He hit me one time and I felt it.

(Jimmy Thunder won ten round points decision over Witherspoon on April 7, 1998)

MUHAMMAD ALI

It was a dream come true to meet Muhammad Ali. I was only little watching him fight Joe Frazier and George Foreman. He was the “ Greatest of all time” I snuck through the back door and I was sparring with the “Greatest of all time.” I am like Wow – I am his sparring partner.

Muhammad was a really nice person. I just wanted to be like him. I think I had some of his traits. I really wanted to be with him because he never turned nobody down. I remember a lot of times – his cabin was in the back at Ali’s training camp – the security would block people but people would sneak to the back to wake him up and the security would be real mad. But he would tell the security to leave the people alone. I said ‘that’s one of a kind.’

When I was sparring with him it was easy to hit him. The sessions that we had were easy. I was waiting for him to reach me a lesson and teach some of the other guys. Muhammad Ali was sick before the Larry Holmes fight. He never progressed. When we got to Las Vegas for that fight he seemed a little weak. I wanted to go home real quick. I was young and I wasn’t used to all the excitement and the hangers-on.

On the way to see Howard Bingham who was one of Muhammad Ali’s representatives – to get my ticket to go home. I wanted to leave. On the way to Howard Bingham’s room because Muhammad had the whole fourteenth floor – I heard them arguing – Gene Kilroy – Drew Bundini his trainer Angelo Dundee. They were arguing about not letting him fight.

They were saying he is okay and others saying he can’t fight, he’s sick and dehydrated. I went down to Bingham’s room and knocked on the door and I had an argument with him about getting me a ticket out of there. His wife closed the door on me. They said they were going to see about getting me a flight out. On the way back down the hallway, they were still arguing about Muhammad Ali being dehydrated. Ali was just sitting on the bed. I was telling all the sparring partners that Ali might not fight. I witnessed this. I have talked about it in several different interviews. It was a serious situation. I knew after the first round Muhammad was not going to win. I knew there was something wrong with Muhammad. That’s the truth.

DON KING AND MIKE TYSON

“I love everybody in the boxing game. I was raised that way. I had my problems with Don King . There was a religious Imam Muslim out of Philadelphia. He knew that Don King and Tim Witherspoon were arguing and it looked kind of bad so he tried to put us together. So I flew over to see Don at his house to straighten out this mess we were in with this lawsuit. When we got there at Don King’s beautiful mansion we walked in and Don was sitting there with Mike Tyson.

I am alright with Don now. Don said something about two fights and $400,000. But, no, he offered me $50,000 and I said ‘we came all the way here for $50,000?’ and I started hollering. Mike Tyson said to Don King ‘I am going to give him some money Don.’ Don said ‘don’t give him shit.’ Tyson came over to me and shook my hand and in his hand was $1,000. He said ‘take it.’ I put it in my pocket. I told Mike that Don was going to rip him off. We left and went back to Philly.

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“I am scheduled to do an exhibition in September – if it comes off I will let you know.”