HW's of the past 10 years that held a title who would lose to Spinks. Haye Chagaev Ibragimov Maskaev Peter Byrd Ruiz
I think it's a bit easier now that you have a pick of which champion you want to face. Great as Monzon and Hagler were they never considered moving up to take on Foster and Spinks respectively.
because it was pretty F...ing Amazing that's why... 8 Divisions!!! 1 Title, 1 Champion and LOADS of Great and Top men before you even got there. Now you can pull a title out of a candy bar wrapping and fight a fighter who would have barely been on the fringe from such times. ...
There was a time when the difference in size between a LHW and a HW wasn't all that much. Today it's much different. There comes a point where size does matter when it's combined with ability of course. A good 175-180lb fighter today is looking at the daunting task of fightng a HW with 50-60 more lbs in weight and perhaps 4-6" in height. That's a tall order for anyone. When the HW champ of the world has that much size over a LH champ I think it's asking a bit too much. The days of the HW champ being under 200lbs are over. Moore and Charles were pretty much the same size as Marciano when they fought him for the title. I don't think we'll ever see that again.
They didn't win the official LHW title or we're able to challenge for it but Tunney, Charles, Braddock, Schmeling, and Bivins were all LHW title holders or contenders who won the HW title. The LHW title was a guarded controlled tool for decades, with the Champion rarely being the best fighter. But LHWs moving up and winning the title was not that rare, until th 60s.
You can make a case for Tunney,Bivins and Charles being shut out of title shots but Schmeling and Braddock at175lbs ? I cant see it.
Charles was heavier by 5.5lbs in the second fight ,Marciano was only .25lb heavier than Moore. I cant ever see the Lhvy King beating the Hvy champ now.
It's all about timing. For example,Michael Spinks beat Larry Holmes but Bob Foster lost to Muhammad Ali (non title) and Joe Frazier (title) For one thing,Spinks had the benefit of more modern training methods to add solid weight and Holmes was more past prime than Ali and Frazier were against Foster. Jones over Ruiz was a case of a good little man beating an average big one.
Schmeling was only ever a Euro level fighter at LHW, and Braddock was given a shot at Tommy Loughran for the title.