Who do you see winning? VK via shut out on the cards with a stoppage inside 6 rounds. Vitali actually did fight two cruiser weight sized guys moving to heavy in Hide and Norris. They lasted combined 3 rounds.
As much as I like Spinks, Vitali is a bad matchup for him. Vitali fights his typical big long awkward fight and muscles Spinks around with his superior physical strength. Shitty fight to watch.
Don't think Spinks has a prayer here. I think he flattered to deceive as a Heavyweight and Vitali beat a hell of a lot of converted Light-Heavies or Cruisers - he knew how to make his physical advantages pay. Granted, none of them were in Spinks' class but even so, he's not hurting Vitali, not pushing him back like he did at times against an old-looking Holmes, and he was hittable. Though Vitali's power is overrated by many, a converted 175 pounder isn't going to do well taking those heavy jabs and one-twos. Vitali by stoppage fairly late on, having really softened Spinks up for a few rounds beforehand.
Vitaly by one of his sadistic beatdowns where he can end it any minute, but keeps the fight going untill the ref stops it.
Vitali is a really big guy. The one thing about Michael vs Larry in 1985 is that Michael didn't look as small compared to Larry as I thought he would. That was significant.
Vitali wins, but the fight won't be as easy for him as people think. My point is based on such things: 1) Spinks looked very good against one huge guy he fought - Gerry Cooney. Of course, Vitali was much better than Cooney, but Gerry still wasn't some joke - he was good fighter with enormous power in his left hook 2) Vitali fought two smaller heavyweights who had about the same size as Spinks - Byrd and Adamek. Well, you can add Herbie Hide, but Hide was much bigger puncher, he relied on his power much more than Byrd, Adamek or Spinks (at HW). Vitali at 40 dominated prime Adamek, winnig every second of every round and stopping him in 10. But Adamek was as basic as they come - he had very conventional style. Spinks had VERY unconventional style. So he he should be considered closer to Byrd, who beat Vitali. Yes, I know Vitali lost because of injury and he was winning the fight on the judges cards. But fight was MUCH closer than it was seen by judges IMO. I scored it 5-3-1 for Vitali at the time of the stoppage. Punch stats was very close as well - Vitali landed 132 punches, while Byrd landed 127. Byrd made Vitali miss wildly all night long and Vitali himself admitted years agoon Ukrainian TV that he injured his shoulder in round 3 when he missed with a left hook. Byrd, however, was more elusive than Spinks. Therefore I think he won't be as competetive as Byrd was against Vitali but he would defenitely be MUCH more competetive than Adamek was. I think Vitali would stop Spinks in round 11, while winning 7 rounds to 3 at the time of stoppage
Vitali is tailor-made for Michael Spinks. Wlad would be another story, but Vitali was too one dimensional for Spinks. Byrd had Vitali bamboozled and he wasn’t half the fighter Spinks was.
Vitali would unfortunately beat him badly, and I am a Spinks fan P4P Spinks is much greater, but h2h, its a no contest
Mismatch in Vitalis favor, but who knows, maybe Spinks can make Vitali quit on his stool like Byrd did
