The bout took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City and was contested for Witherspoon's WBA heavyweight championship.
The official assigned to the bout was Luis Rivera, with judges Samuel Conde Lopez, Julio Roldan, and Joe Santarpia scoring.
The winner of the bout would receive a title match against Tony Tubbs, who dethroned WBA champion Greg Page in April of 1985.
Their fight was a one sided affair, with Witherspoon winning every round except for one on all three judges' scorecards to take a twelve-round unanimous decision.
In doing so, he joined Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson as a fighter who had won a piece of the heavyweight title after previously having dethroned; as mentioned above, Witherspoon was a former WBC champion, having defeated the aforementioned Greg Page to win the title in 1984 after Holmes opted to relinquish it rather than defending against Page.
The two sides would eventually strike an agreement where the result of the fight was allowed to stand, but a rematch between the two fighters would be ordered by the WBA.
However, Witherspoon and King began negotiating with Frank Bruno, the former European heavyweight champion and a rising contender, in his first defense of the title in London and convinced Tubbs to postpone the mandatory rematch.
Needing a replacement, the first choice was Tyrell Biggs, the former Olympic super heavyweight champion who had yet to be defeated and was already scheduled to fight Renaldo Snipes on the undercard.
The sides could not agree on a purse for Biggs so King instead contacted Smith’s management and offered him the fight, which he accepted.
Green, who was left without an opponent once Smith took the title fight, also showed up at the news conference threatening to “break (King’s) neck” for what he believed was six years of purse money the promoter stole from him.
Smith resumed his assault, landing several heavy punches, and with forty-five seconds remaining in the round Witherspoon went down again, which constitutes an automatic knockout under WBA rules.