Chazz Witherspoon Fills the Breach vs. Heavyweight Hopeful Oleksandr Usyk

Tyrone Spong we hardly knew ye.

Spong, the former European kickboxing champion whose pro boxing career had been playing out in the shadows, was scheduled to receive his 15 minutes of fame this Saturday when he opposed former unified cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in Chicago on DAZN in what would be Usyk’s debut as a heavyweight. Alas, Spong failed to pass muster with VADA which revealed that a random test detected Clomophene, one of many banned substances. (Used to treat infertility and FDA-approved only for women, Clomophene increases testosterone levels in men which can enhance athletic performance.)

Eddie Hearn, the bout’s promoter, has been in this situation before. Experience has taught him the importance of having a replacement handy. Some reports say Hearn had five possible subs stashed away in the event that Spong had to be scratched. (Tyrone Spong was himself a replacement part as Usyk was originally slated to make his heavyweight debut against Carlos Takam.)

News outlets, in their rush to be first, have dispensed a lot of fake news. The most famous example was the front-page headline that appeared in the Chicago Daily News on the morning following the 1948 U.S. presidential election: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

When it was made known that Tyrone Spong was in Dutch (no pun intended; he actually is a Dutchman), a certain web site rushed to tell their readers that Hearn had settled on Detroit’s Rydell Booker as Spong’s replacement. Booker, once considered America’s top amateur heavyweight, was 4-1 since returning to boxing after a lengthy absence occasioned by a nearly 12-year-long prison stint for cocaine trafficking.

This ejaculation proved to be premature. Rydell Booker was out before he was in. Late this afternoon (Tuesday, Oct. 8) it was officially announced that Chazz Witherspoon would be the guy.

A second cousin of former heavyweight title-holder Tim Witherspoon, Chazz, 38, was also a good amateur, serving as an alternate on the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team. As a pro, he’s 38-3 (29 KOs). He last fought in March of this year when he took on Santander Silgado, a flabby Panamanian (that’s Silgado on the right).

The fight ended after two rounds. It wasn’t a conventional stoppage. In the words of veteran Atlantic City scribe David Weinberg, who was ringside, Silgado staged a sit-in. The New Jersey commission held up his purse.

That gave Witherspoon his eighth straight win since losing by TKO to former Michigan State linebacker Seth Mitchell who was then undefeated. However, those eight wins were spaced across seven-and-a-half years and his opponents were the usual suspects.

The two most recognizable names on his ledger are Chris Arreola and Tony Thompson. He fought Arreola in Memphis on June 21, 2008. In the third round he was knocked down twice. The second knockdown occurred almost simultaneously with the bell ending the round. As the ref was giving the count, Witherspoon’s corner entered the ring, apparently oblivious to the fact that a round cannot end when the referee is in the middle of a count. Witherspoon was disqualified.

He fought Tony Thompson on Dec. 5, 2009, in Atlantic City. Thompson, best remembered for his two fights with Wladimir Klitschko, staggered Witherspoon with a big right hand in round nine and followed up with a barrage as Witherspoon lay on the ropes, impelling the referee to waive it off.

Witherspoon is nicknamed The Gentleman and by all accounts the handle is a good fit. He certainly didn’t take this fight because he was desperate for the money. With a degree in pharmaceutical marketing from Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s University, Witherspoon is unlikely to ever fall into the same trap as Rydell Booker.

When Oleksandr Usyk announced that he was heading up to heavyweight after unifying the cruiserweight title, he inevitably invited comparisons to Evander Holyfield. Evander won his first seven fights as a heavyweight inside the distance before being extended the full 12 by the amazing George Foreman. It’s highly unlikely that Usyk’s journey will take the same tack, but he should have little trouble getting off on the right foot on Saturday against late sub Chazz Witherspoon.

As for Tyrone Spong, who is 14-0 with 13 KOs against the usual suspects, he insists that VADA’s adverse finding was nothing but a set-up to remove him from the fight because Oleksandr Usyk’s management, on second thought, deemed him too big of a threat. “I will not rest until I’m absolved of this outlandish allegation and will pursue all legal avenues available to me,” he said on his twitter page.

We shall see.

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