I can’t think of too many Light heavyweights I pick to beat Michael Spinks …I can’t think of a few Heavyweights I would pick to beat Mike Tyson
The question tho is who we rank higher "all time" i.e. achievement based. Spinks achieved more. I'm definitely not ranking Buster above Tyson on an all time achievements list.
Exactly. That result resides in the realm of H2H not in respect of whole resume. In terms of greatness (and we can isolate Ali just to his 2nd career “greatness”), Ken Norton doesn’t run anywhere near as close to Ali as he did in their trilogy of fights -
When you are comparing 2 fighters, I would suggest that one night is pretty important. Unless they fought more than once. Or are you suggesting that on a different night Spinks would have won?
Many people thought that a Davis- I forget which, I get them mixed up- deserved the decision when he fought Spinks. I would favor a number of lhws to beat him, like Conn, Moore, Foster. At his best, I reckon Tyson to be a good bet against any heavyweight ever. It is all semantics and perception and opinion. What is concrete is that Tyson stopped him in 91 seconds of an utter mismatch. No Spinks "overall accomplishments" helped him and he was too petrified to confuse Tyson with his "awkward" style.
Important to their respective rankings at HW, yes. Spinks was a natural LHW. I wouldnt pick any natural LHW in history to beat a prime Tyson nor do I rank any natural LHW above Tyson at HW based on achievements. Spinks joins Charles, Tunney, Moore, Bivins, Loughran and Conn as fighters who were natural LHWs in their prime and who rank above Tyson p4p. Ricky Hatton used to balloon up to 200lbs between fighters. I assume you realise that -1) Even a journeyman, club level CW would have destroyed him in a round; and 2) Hatton would still rank higher p4p? Clearly, that's an exaggerated example to demonstrate the concept to you, that a naturally far heavier fighter can beat a naturally far lighter fighter, who should be ranked ahead of them p4p based on overall career achievements.
Spink didn’t spend years in jail an outta the ring for 4 years before fighting Holmes. Don’t think that’s a good comparison to use
Yeah but if someone said Spinks got 2 close decisions against Holmes but Tyson destroyed Holmes and flattened him in 4 rounds?
Also true, but not qualititave reflections of their careers. To be more explicit: The fighters Spinks beat are better light-heavyweights than the heavyweights Tyosn beat in a pound-for-pound sense. Spinks, at his best weight, beat more impressive men than Mike Tyson did at heavyweight. But even in comparing their best wins at Heayvweight alone, Spinks does something more impressive than Tyson in the sense that he is 2-1 versus the three best he faced at the poundage whereas Tyson would be 0-3. It was shortahnd for: the pound-for-pound question is sewn up. The ATG question is sewn up. It doesn't mean that Spinks was a better heavyweight, in fact he was a worse one as you indicate.
Spinks beat an active, 35 year old Holmes. Tyson beat a nearly two years ring rusty, 38 year old Holmes. Though I seriously doubt Mike would have lost to the Holmes that Spinks beat, I think it would have been a more competitive match.