How good was Michael Spinks? 31-1 with 21 KOs

[TIC]

michael is one of the best light heavyweights of all time & he challenged himself at heavyweight

[ykdadamaja]

Spinks was a great boxer, but Tyson was an animal. Spinks may have won against Evander or Lewis, because styles makes fights. But guys like Tyson and Bowe would have killed him...

[Spicoli]

It's a shame really that the Tyson annihilation is the forever cloud over Spinks successful run to heavyweight and sort of eclipses what he had accomplished prior. You get the feeling he didn't want to be there at all and had already reached his ceiling physically and mentally. Even though the Holmes W's deserve huge asterisks they ran it back in what ? six months and Spinks competed and notched rounds at the highest level. I'd place Spinks hvy title as and more meaningful than Toney-Jones title wins but Toney technically screwed himself out of actually claiming one. And lineal meant something then, now we just count trinkets like a squirrel hoards nuts. On Holyfield I don't see Spinks beating him at cruiser or heavy though cruiser would have been massive. But the physicality inside and speed was more than matched by Holyfield who packed more pop on the combos and would prove to walk through some of the biggest punchers we've known when he was in top form.

[X]

Spinks was a superb fighter, whose legacy will forever be tainted by the single loss on his register.

Always fit, always ready, he had an excellent amateur career and was completely dominant at the weight (when there was quite a bit of talent staying at light-heavy in those days)

Hugely awkward, with a unique herky-jerky style that was such a conundrum for opponents to try and figure out. He topped that off with a thudding and accurate right hand that contained enough power to knock out gigantic heavyweights.

Spinks created genuine history by being the first LHW to conquer the heavyweight division, after some seriously great fighters had failed. Homes was ageing, but still a very serious threat to anyone. It says how highly Spinks was regarded when he was widely seen as the only credible challenge to a peak young Tyson.

He was blown away by Iron Mike, no question about it. I remember watching the fight ...... the first knockdown was Spinks thinking clearly under pressure and taking a knee to buy himself a bit of time. Very clever. The second was 'goodbye'.

He retired after the Tyson fight and never came back. A great legacy, a shame that people only remember his last fight and not the Olympic Gold, wins over Qawi, Mustafa Muhammad, Davis and 10 successful title defences.

Up there with Moore and Charles in the debate about the greatest ever LHW. Comparing him to Holyfield is slightly unfair because a) they are naturally of different sizes and b) Evan Field was juiced to his eyeballs.

[Master]

@X and primo question?

[X]

1. Who wins at LHW ? Michael Spinks or RJJ ?
2. Prime v prime , Michael Spinks or RJJ ?


At Light Heavy, I think Spinks beats Jones 8 times out of ten. Too big (Jones was naturally a much smaller guy, and Ruiz was one of the worst heavyweights to ever hold a title). Jones used his physical gifts and freakish talents to figure people out and time them, and i'm not sure that would have worked against Spinks' herky jerky and very awkward style. Spinks would have been too solid for Jones at LHW.

At SMW, Jones wins because Spinks was just too big to boil down to that weight division effectively.

Prime v prime - I'm not sure how to answer it, as it is size based. If they were both exactly the same size, I'm finding it hard to pick against Jones as he was such a freak of nature.

[mikeeod]

1. Who wins at LHW ? Michael Spinks or RJJ ?
2. Prime v prime , Michael Spinks or RJJ ?


At Light Heavy, I think Spinks beats Jones 8 times out of ten. Too big (Jones was naturally a much smaller guy, and Ruiz was one of the worst heavyweights to ever hold a title). Jones used his physical gifts and freakish talents to figure people out and time them, and i'm not sure that would have worked against Spinks' herky jerky and very awkward style. Spinks would have been too solid for Jones at LHW.

At SMW, Jones wins because Spinks was just too big to boil down to that weight division effectively.

Prime v prime - I'm not sure how to answer it, as it is size based. If they were both exactly the same size, I'm finding it hard to pick against Jones as he was such a freak of nature.

Great point of Spinks’ awkwardness being difficult for Roy to time. RJ’s speed and reflexes vs Spinks’s size and awkward rhythm would’ve been really interesting. Now you have me reconsidering my original pick of Roy winning the head to head match up…