How Well Could Michael Spinks Do, Against Riddick Bowe?

Agreed.

Spinks barely got by a aging Holmes in a chess match who was never a Power Puncher, he defused the shell of Cooney who was a Puncher but was well done by then.

The only prime Heavy he met was Tyson who obliterated him in 91 sec, he went down from a body shot first, rare to deck a Heavy with a Body shot in the opening round. While Spinks was never down or hurt until Tyson he also never met real Heavyweight fire power and the very first time he was confronted with it he was stopped, Spinks cannot rely on his chin vs Prime upper tier Heavies.

I would be amazed if Spinks makes it into the 5th round but Bowe WILL stop him.

 

Possibly not. But I DO think his mindset in 1985-86 was very different than it was in 1988.

 

It's my opinion that Spinks would have passed on the opportunity to fight Holmes even two years earlier.

Michael beat a past it Larry (once, and even that's arguable), a warped Cooney, and...uhh, who was the other guy?

He was a really great light-heavyweight, and that's mostly it.

 

Bowe takes him out ... gigantic difference between the Bowe of Holyfield 1 and the Cooney of the Spinks fight ...

 

We're both Holmes fans but Spinks clearly beat Holmes the 1st time around.

 

I have to be completely honest, every time I've watched that fight I had Spinks ahead 1 point.

I've never had it even or for Holmes.

Second fight I've never had it less than three points for Larry.

 

Bowe is a bad match for Spinks. Spinks will be awkward while he lasts but Bowe is going to tag him and besides hitting harder than Holmes he would be a lot younger and fresher in following up. Holmes hurt Spinks with multiple single right hands across the two bouts but lacked the youth, timing and vigor to take advantage. He also had problems timing his right hands. I don't think that would be the case here.

 

That's fair. But I would further speculate that Holmes being ready for the taking helped with Spinks' motivation a tad. Whereas, had Bowe been there, in Larry's stead - say, having just become champ, for argument's sake - I wonder if Spinks would have been anywhere near as confident.

I do wonder if, in that scenario, Spinks would have even had a go at the Heavyweight championship. I doubt he'd have taken the risk for the purse he earned from Holmes 1 - But he might have been more motivated with a purse like that on offer from the Tyson bout.

 

I've never considered that Spinks' first win against Holmes was all that convincing. Not saying it was controversial, but it certainly wasn't beyond question, in my view.

 

I thought Spinks won in the region of 9-6, i know what your saying and points wise it was kind of close. But after watching it, i had no doubt Spinks was the better man on the night and deserved the win.

 

Fair enough

 

It simply wasn't an impressive performance by Spinks, in my opinion and the opinion of the majority of sports journalists there. He seemed like an awkward clown through too much of it...granted it might have been just that which won him the fight. Spinks knew Holmes had trouble with awkward fighters (Berbick, Snipes, Norton), and he took it to its...uh, goofiest extreme.

I don't think many people felt great about the way Spinks won that fight, for good reason imo.

 

That's not an unreasonable scoreline. Though, I'd not have been surprised by an SD or Draw result, either

As can be the case in a 'Cat-n-Mouse' type of fight, the judges decide on what they prefer quite early on. In this case, the persistent evasion and awkwardness of the fresher Spinks or the labored pressure, such that it was, of the more aggressive Holmes. Some of what Spinks was doing looked really good - but only very occasionally. Holmes, in attempting to force the fight, was made to look his age, for long periods, during rounds.

It was an ugly fight and one in which Holmes appeared jaded, out of his element and well past it, as a result, while Spinks capitalized.

Back to the point of the thread - Do you think the type of evasion Spinks displayed against Holmes was enough to cause any problems for a peak Bowe, who was an aggressive boxer-puncher (with a bit of the slugger in the mix), in contrast to Holmes out-boxing style?

 

Not very well I suspect.

It is certainly a fight that he should have avoided like the plague, if the timelines had allowed it.

 

I do yes because Bowe had trouble finding Tony Tubbs, as i said in another thread when an opponent fought on the outside vs Bowe at times he would look beatable. Tubbs gave him all he could handle, Biggs gave him some issues, Holyfield did the 2nd time, and even Hide's hand speed with his darting in an out movement befuddled Bowe at times.

Overall i don't think Spinks wins this fight, but i do think his elusive awkward style would give Bowe some issues early on. Until Bowe eventually catches up with him and stops him.