Mike
defeated such men as John Tate, Gerrie Coetzee, Carl "Truth" Williams,
Phillip Brown, James, "Quick" Tillis, Bernardo Mercado, Stan Ward,
Scott LeDoux, Bert Cooper and Johnny du Plooy.
Mike Weaver lost
his title to Michael Dokes (L TKO 1) in controversial fashion when
referee Joey Curtis seemingly jumped in too quickly and halted the
fight. They met in a rematch five months later and while many of the
20,000 at ringside in Las Vegas thought Weaver had done enough to
regain his title, the judges disagreed and Dokes kept the title on
a draw.
"Hercules" won three fights and faced WBC beltholder
Pinklon Thomas in June 1985. Weaver recovered from a first round knockdown,
the fight was even on two scorecards after seven rounds, until Thomas
stopped Weaver (L TKO 8).
After stopping the promising Carl Williams
in two rounds, Weaver lost to James Smith (L TKO 1 and L UD 12) and
Razor Ruddock (L SD 10).
A faded 40 year old version of his former
self was iced by future undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis
(L KO 6) in July 1991. Weaver fought sparringly until retiring at
age 49 after losing a rematch to Holmes in a battle of veterans in
November 2000.
"I didn't do anything," Weaver (41-18-1, 28 knockouts)
said of his life since retiring from boxing. "I got bored and opened
a gym training kids, did that for a while and got tired and went home,
did nothing, just relaxing."
Weaver, now 68, lives in Moreno
Valley, California. He has been married four times, has four children,
five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.