I’d guess that thing traveled at most 12 inches with no windup whatsoever and separated Pops from his senses.
Strangely enough, having just recently watched that fight, I believe Spinks referred to the punch as "the best left hook" he ever threw in the post fight interview. I thought it was more of an uppercut myself, but I wound up parroting Spinks in my description in that last Survey video.
Samson Dutch Boy Gym seemed to have deadly punches from all angles on the inside, his uppercuts among them. Underrated as one of the best inside fighters ever.
He's a little like a lower weights Joe Louis with all that technical perfection. You could pick any of his prime fights and it wouldn't be long before you saw him employ hard uppercuts with both hands. They were a real weapon for him but get lost because his jab, hook and cross were also huge weapons. He certainly shared the love around as he didn't neglect any of them.
Well I’m not going to argue with Michael Spinks or with Rummy. Michael could take my head off with a ‘left hook’ and Rummy could make a video with my dumbest posts and forever shame me on Classic, haha! Just funnin’ my friend. I greatly value your contributions to this, the best boxing forum on the planet. Keep doing what you do.
The punch was sorta recognized as a hybrid uppercut/hook well back when it happened. One mag may have even called it a hookercut. I can jive with whatever anyone, or Spinks, wants to call it. It was pretty special.