How come John Tate never got another title shot in 80s

[Sugar Adam Ali]

How come John Tate never got another title shot, or meaningful fight for that matter in the 80s..
He was a former champ who lost dramatically to weaver and then lost to berbick.. Both by ko...

Tate would go on a long winning streak after this and him being a former champ and chinny, you would think one of the multiple champs or contenders would give him a crack..

How come he never got another shot???

[rightsideup]

How come John Tate never got another title shot, or meaningful fight for that matter in the 80s..
He was a former champ who lost dramatically to weaver and then lost to berbick.. Both by ko...

Tate would go on a long winning streak after this and him being a former champ and chinny, you would think one of the multiple champs or contenders would give him a crack..

How come he never got another shot???

he did fight some guys with not bad records but I doubt if the were rated. I noticed Donny long was on his record early tyson victim and also lost to willie dewitt

[Sugar Adam Ali]

he did fight some guys with not bad records but I doubt if the were rated. I noticed Donny long was on his record early tyson victim and also lost to willie dewitt

Yeah, he didn't fight any ranked guys and was just beating club foghters..

But I cant think of another heavyweight or fighter for that matter, that was an undefeated champ, lost by a come from behind ko, and then ko'd again.. And then win a bunch of club fights and never get another crack at a meaningful fight...

Look how many times guys like berbick, buster, ruiz, Rahman, Golata, have been recycled over the years..
Tate was never recycled even though he had a pretty good resume, was in some fan friendly fights, and was proven not too have an iron chin.. I just can't believe he couldn't land a meaningful fight after the berbick fight..l

Weaver 2
Witherspoon
Tubbs
Tucker
Young tyson
Pinklon
Buster
Bonecrusher
Dokes

Tate fought the entire 80s without another meaningful fight... Seems very odd

[Scott9945]

Tate had severe problems with ******* and poor conditioning. He also did time in prison for theft and assault.

[joseph5620]

Tate had severe problems with ******* and poor conditioning. He also did time in prison for theft and assault.

I remember reading that Tate was supposed to get a shot at Larry Holmes around the time Holmes was fighting boxers like Scott Frank and David Bey. Do you know why this never happened Scott or was the fight just talk?

[Scott9945]

I remember reading that Tate was supposed to get a shot at Larry Holmes around the time Holmes was fighting boxers like Scott Frank and David Bey. Do you know why this never happened Scott or was the fight just talk?

I don't remember anything specifically, tbh. I'm guessing that Tate just didn't have the motivation or the people behind him to make that happen. I did read where Tate blew up to 400 lbs after he left boxing.

[The Old LefHook]

Did Donking figure into it?

[Scott9945]

Did Donking figure into it?

Tate was promoted by Arum when he was a top heavyweight.

[scartissue]

Tate was scheduled to fight Holmes somewhere during his clubfighter comeback, but for some reason he pulled out sick or injured and it was never rescheduled. I don't know what was going on in his management's head on why they had him on that barnstorming circuit against no-hopers. Perhaps to build confidence back into their man. But he needed to fight a viable contender not the Chuck Gardner's of the world. I was really up for a Tate-Holmes fight while they were co-champions and even believed Tate had a good shot at Holmes. Believe me, he was that talented. But the KO by Weaver ended that. His jaw was never the same. Not unlike Sean O'Grady after Ganigan, Livingstone Bramble after Rosario and Pipino Cuevas after Hearns. Had he fought Holmes on the date signed, Holmes wouldn't have had any issues with him.

[Dynamite76]

If Big John had beaten a Renaldo Snipes, or a James Tillis type of fighter, he would have been in the thick of things, and gotten that shot.But he didn't, and, in addition, those losses to Berbick and Weaver permanently damaged his rep.