Tim Witherspoon had captured his second world title after narrowly outpointing reigning WBA heavyweight champion
Tony Tubbs in a close majority decision victory on January 17, 1986. Shortly after his victory, Witherspoon ran into trouble after a post-fight drug test revealed traces of marijuana in his system. Facing a possible suspension and being stripped of his title, Witherspoon admitted to smoking a single
joint in November while celebrating with friends after signing the contract for the title shot against Tubbs and stated "I would never know it would trace up so many months later." Witherspoon, his promoter
Don King and manager Carl King were first summoned to go before the Georgia Boxing Commission to explain the positive test after which Witherspoon was issued a one-year probation and a $500 fine. Witherspoon would then face a disciplinary hearing with the WBA in March. Though Tubbs and his team insisted Witherspoon be stripped of the title, WBA president
Gilberto Mendoza opted to keep Witherspoon as champion and instead to issued him a $25,000 fine and ordered a Witherspoon–Tubbs rematch. The winner of the rematch was to then grant a title match to Frank Bruno, the top-ranked heavyweight contender, within 90 days. The undefeated Bruno had been in talks to face Witherspoon in his native UK since Witherspoon's victory over Tubbs in January, but first needed to win a WBA "eliminator" bout against ex-WBA heavyweight champion
Gerrie Coetzee on March 4, 1986. Bruno would dispatch Coetzee less than two minutes of action, winning by first-round knockout, officially becoming the WBA's top contender and entered in negotiations to face Witherspoon that July. Though Tubbs was still owed a rematch against Witherspoon, Tubbs agreed to step aside in favor of Bruno after being paid $250,000 and being promised a match that fall against the winner of the Witherspoon–Bruno fight. However, the fight was put in jeopardy after a dispute between rival British television stations
ITV and
BBC regarding who would broadcast the fight in the UK where the fight was set to take place. Don King and
Butch Lewis had already sold the rights to their entire
Heavyweight World Series (in which a series of heavyweight title matches were organized to determine an undisputed heavyweight champion) to ITV but Bruno's promoter
Mickey Duff already had a longstanding agreement with BBC allowing the channel to exclusively broadcast fights that included his stable of fighters.
HBO, who held the rights for the American broadcast, feared the fight would be cancelled and thus had a contingency plan in place that would see the Witherspoon–Tubbs rematch take place on the same date somewhere in the United States with Bruno facing the winner in the fall. The fight was saved on the last minute when both stations agreed to share the TV rights, with HBO agreeing to work with both in regards to producing the telecast. The fight was a major box office success, selling over 40,000 tickets, setting a then-record as the most attended boxing fight in the UK, surpassing the 1966
Ali–Cooper II fight which sold 39,000 tickets. ==The fight==