Michael Spinks vs Michael Dokes

The fact that Holmes was manhandling Spinks early in their second fight and pretty much swept the first 2 or 3 rounds just again shows how much Spinks (especially at HW) was just a patient slow starting thinker in there and that’s suicide against Tyson for a former light heavyweight who’s not the type to grapple and nullify Tyson’s early onslaught. In that second Holmes fight by the end he had out landed Holmes and come on extremely strong down the stretch, though he was briefly buzzed I think in round 14 but if you watch the tape he comes flurrying back seconds later, but that never makes the HL clips. Unfortunately he was doomed in that Tyson matchup. I agree with the assessment that he gets way undervalued at HW based solely on the Tyson disaster. I like others think he’d of been competitive against many other former champs on that night. Just not that Tyson for sure.

 

It would be a good fight. I can see Spinks outboxing Dokes for portions before Dokes lands something big, then things would get dicey for Spinks. In a fight of the Michael's I see Spinks pulling a close decision and like Larry Holmes 2 a lot of people would think Dokes got robbed. Then we'd have a rematch and...oh boy!

 

The gameplan against Tyson was to keep offsetting his straight line charges by stepping to the side, jabbing and sidestepping, stepping back to draw the charge then countering, giving him movement making Spinks harder to find, a variety of common sense things based on Tyson charging in predictable straight lines.

For whatever reason it all went out the window when the bell rang which goes to show ow intimidating Tyson really was as Spinks had been magnificent in adhering to brilliant gameplans against Qawi and Holmes.

 

That's very true Goo and obviously a bit harsh but that was partly my goal tho i love Spinks.

I haven't really used just that one case tho, I've harped on quite a bit about Spinks wobbly every time a tired Holmes caught him. More fights at Heavyweight IMO would have shown up a lack of punch resistance at that weight. Now this is partly opinion because we really don't have a lot to go on. We have Holmes who wobbled him a lot and Tyson who buried him in a canter. See spinks only ever had four fights at the weight, of which two were against the same guy and two against guys that do next to nothing. If Cooney was half a shell of himself it may have got interesting but he had nothing really.

What i will give Patterson is that he finished on his feet even if counted out by Liston first fight -

He made it to his feet but was unable to beat the referee's count of ten. Gilbert Rogin of Sports Illustrated wrote: "Liston is not a notably swift and flashy hitter, but that final left hook crashed into Patterson's cheek like a diesel rig going downhill, no brakes. . . . There are no fighters extant, and precious few mammals of any variety, that could have beaten the count. The miracle is that Patterson was able to get to his knees."

He got up twice in the rematch even if it was short. Patterson knew how to get up and win a fight - he did it umpteen times. The only people that ever finished him was Liston, Ali and Ingo 1-3. You mentioned Ingo as one of the guys he was going down against as a negative but Ingo was a huge puncher. Patterson actually rolled and fought close fights with some pretty decent heavies including the likes of Quarry. If Spinks fought the amount of top contenders Patterson did i'm sure we would have seen him struggle multiple times.

I've also debated before against Spinks being past it. It's way overdone for mine. He had 32 fights total and had an easy run post Holmes before Tyson. He didn't have many grueling fights. He was 31yo against Tyson.

I hope that's cleared things a little bit mate.

 

The first thing to clear up, is when this fight happens.

Dokes could have been a nightmare for Spinks, but I don't see their best work quite overlapping.

So who has to come to who?

 

I lean towards Dokes.

 

It's already cleared up, Magoo has set it in the opening post. Pick your best version. I'm going with the version of Dokes that stepped out in the first Weaver fight. Spinks of either Holmes fight would be acceptable for me.

 

Cheers mate. Now i'm not saying i'm right about much of anything I've said - i'm actually going out on a bit of limb with some things and it's all down to interpretation. Perhaps if he fought a couple of top 5 contenders, say a Berbick and a Tucker Spinks may well have proven me wrong in some of what i deduced. Many will slant differently to the way i did.

 

My money is on Michael to win or atleast get a draw.

 

Witherspoon would be dangerous throughout. He has the power to beat him and could potentially turn things quickly. Personally i think Spinks would outhustle him while the fight lasted. I think Tim would need to stop him.

Tubbs is like Dokes, immense hand speed and i think this fact could potentially trouble Spinks. Witherspoons a better fighter than Tony of course.

It's quite hard to get a good grasp on these matches due to Spinks limited output at Heavyweight.

 

Judging by how much trouble Witherspoon had vs Snipes another awkward fighter i also thought Witherspoon lost this fight BTW, then i think the herky/jerky style of Spinks would give Witherspoon alot of problems.

It's possible Spinks could outhustle Witherspoon and win a decision, but on the flip side a faded Holmes badly hurt Spinks a few times with his right hand. I think Witherspoon hits harder with the right hand and if he catches Spinks, then i'm not sure Spinks would get off the hook vs Witherspoon quite like he did vs Holmes.

 

Completely agree DP. Witherspoon is also dangerous with the left hook where as Holmes wasn't so that's an extra element as well.

 

This,,,,,,,