Matthew saad Muhammad vs Michael Spinks

Frankly, I'm surprised this one never happened to begin with. Both guys were big players during the same era, and had many common opponents. Its difficult to say who would take this one, but I'm inclined to picking Spinks. The reason for my selection is that Spink's chin, stamina and skill was never bested at lightheavyweight, and he managed to defeat a few of the same fighters whom Saad could not. I think Mathew was definately an all time great lightheavyweight who could have troubled Spinks, but I'm inclined to thinking that Michael was a slight step above.

 

Spinks would have made an ugly sight of the great warrior that was Saad.

 

Very true,

For whatever reason, Saad seemed to have gone down hill despite only being in his late 20's. Nevertheless, Spinks was a work in progress in 1981, while Mathew was still dangerous, so anything could have happened. Prime for prime however, I think Spinks was generally the better of the two. He looked more impressive in beating many of the same opponents, and even beat a few who Muhammad couldn't. Of course, comparing performances against common opponents is not the best way to do any analysis, but in this case we really don't have much else to go by. I will say that Spinks successfully survived a very competitive lightheavyweight era without even the slightest blemish to his record, and in fact I don't think he ever touched the canvas either. A peak Saad could have given Spinks fits, but in the end, I think Michael stops him.

 

Yeah, I suppose a decision win for Spinks is a reasonable outcome. Saad was very well seasoned and could take a pretty good punch, plus had quite a few tricks up his sleave. This probably would have been a classical fight had it occurred.

 

The fight was very heavily in the pipeline but Braxton whalloped Saad twice to end the hopes.

 

The moment for this one to happen was immediately after Mike starched Marvin Johnson. Remember the rousing banter between the two at ringside during the post fight interview?

Matt (As the camera shows Johnson being attended to in the ring, while the PA system tastelessly plays Queen's, "Another One Bites the Dust."): You know, I knocked out Marvin Johnson twice!

Mike: And you almost got killed by him twice!

Both together: Loud, indistinguishable yelling.

Then the screen switches from the ring to a shot of these two hollering at each other, and they're obviously enjoying this verbal foodfight.

But Mike's next performance was against Mustafa Muhammad, not Matt, who defended his title against Murray Sutherland and Jerry Martin instead.

If this had happened in mid 1981, I believe Mike would have finished the job John Conteh started in 1979. Matt would have spotted him the lead, but this time he wouldn't have been able to catch up by breaking through to suddenly score multiple fight saving knockdowns late. Not taking on Mike probably extended Matt's reign for the better part of a year, through the Sutherland and Martin defenses, and almost to the end of 1981.

 

I have to pick Spinks, just one of the most dominant and great ever at 175

 

It would have been a great fight, a real war. However I believe that Spinks would have beaten Saad down and won by stoppage in the later rounds. Saad was prone to taking excessive punishment when in the ring against top-flight foes, and Spinks could really dish it out.

Spinks surfaced at the top late in 1980, when he stopped Yaqui Lopez in six rounds. Thus, if this fight had occured, it would have happened sometime in 1981. At that point Saad was starting to slip, even though he was still tough. Thus, Saad's relative decline in 1981 is all the more reason to believe that Spinks would have won.

In my book, Spinks is a top rated all-time great at 175 lbs., while Saad is a near great. Overall Spinks was simply the better of these two extraordinary fighters.

 

I remember the way Spinks talked to Muhammad after this fight...he was calling him "Sad Muhammad." I thought that was pretty funny.

As for the win over Johnson, it was a dramatic one punch kayo in the fourth round. The way Spinks disposed of Johnson convinced me right there and then that he was destined to win the championship regardless of who he fought.

 

You've been posting here for a long time

 

Indeed

 

I love Matt, but Michael would have knocked him out.