Pinklon Thomas vs. Mike Weaver

Pinklon Thomas had defeated WBC heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, who was making his first title defense, by majoriry decision to capture the title on August 31, 1984.^[2] Originally, promoter Don King had hoped to make David Bey, who defeated fellow heavyweight contender Greg Page on the Witherspoon–Thomas undercard, the first challenger to Thomas' title. The winner of the Thomas–Bey fight would then meet the winner of the planned unification bout between IBF heavyweight champion Larry Holmes and WBA heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee with the winner unifying all three major heavyweight title and thus becoming undisputed champion.^[3] However, those plans were derailed when the Holmes–Coetzee fight was cancelled due to financial issues.

Instead, in late 1984 King signed former WBA heavyweight champion Mike Weaver, the WBC's number-one ranked heavyweight contender, as Thomas' first opponent as heavyweight champion.^[4] King sold the fight to HBO in December alongside a March 1985 Larry Holmes–David Bey IBF heavyweight title fight, but it was not officially announced until April.^[5][6]

Thomas was a 2–1 favorite going into the fight.^[7]

Thomas got off to a good start in the fight, using his signature jab to bloody Weaver's mouth early in the first round and scoring the first of his two knockdowns in the fight. With less than a minute remaining in the round, Thomas stunned Weaver with an overhand right, which he then followed up with a multiple-punch combination that sent an off-balance Weaver down to his knees, though Weaver quickly got back to his feet and survived the remainder of the round. In the second, Thomas continued to use his jab to bother Weaver, who complained to referee Carlos Padilla Jr. about being thumbed in the eye by after a Thomas jab, increased his lead by taking the round on all three official scorecards. However, Weaver got back into the fight in round three, opening up a cut above Thomas's left eye and staggering Thomas twice during the final minute of the round. Weaver would follow up his big third round by staggering Thomas with a left hand in the opening seconds of the fourth and again winning the round on all three scorecards. Weaver would also win the fifth and six rounds to take the lead on the scorecards before Thomas won the seventh, tying the score on two of the scorecards, while holding a narrow one-point lead on the third. The fight would come to a sudden end midway through the eighth round as Thomas landed a big right hand flush to Weaver's head that put Weaver on the canvas for the second time. Weaver attempted to get back up but stumbled back down to the canvas as he was counted out. Thomas was named the winner by knockout at 1:42 of the eighth round.^[8]