Why did Spinks put on 25lb to fight Holmes?

Agreed. He may do a one-off like Huck if the right opportunity presented itself, but the vast majority of his career is as a CW. A defensive-minded heavyweight can get away with coming in at 205, but the magic number for a brawler/swarmer like Marciano would be more like 210-215.

Many fighters in the 205 range or so just drain down to CW anyways.

Heck, it'd be comical just to see the size disparity of a "CW" like Guillermo Jones up against Marciano.

 

I'd love for footage of that to pop up :good

 

:good

 

There's no way of knowing. I guess it would depend on the fighter's character. I think if you had a time machine, Rocky may have had a go though. But realistically, who would go to HW with a 68" reach? Artur Beterbiev is bigger than Rocky was.

 

Good post.

Unless they had Rocky's character, I don't think they'd have done it even once though. Not with Rocky's style and physique.

Even Huck is a lot bigger than what Rocky was.

The weight isn't really the issue for me, it would be the lack of reach, skills and speed.

A guy like Roy moved up successfully, and he could have had success against a few other carefully selected HW's. Because he had the speed and skills.

Rocky's reach was 68" which was 4" shorter than Floyd Mayweather's.

A lot of people say that Rocky's era was weak, but he was really up against it with his style and his size. So again, I can't imagine any fighter with his reach moving up.

 

Correct.

 

I don't know why you think he'd have been better heavier, when his biggest attribute was his stamina, and he and Goldman obviously always targeted a weight of 180-190 pounds.

Like another poster mentioned earlier on in the thread, if either of them had thought a higher weight would have been more beneficial to him, then he'd have weighed more.

 

Is this definite tho? Spinks was still most elusive and actually finished the stronger. His program and diet was quite well planned and i have no doubt it gave him some strength and power gains.

I reckon if Spinks was offered to come in at whatever weight he wanted to vs the 175'ers he probably would have bulked up a bit. There's every chance that the Spinks who fought Holmes would have been even harder to beat for 175 pounders imo. Could be wrong.