What if Michael Spinks fought on?

You're getting fooled by his portrayal of Lieutenant Dan Taylor, on the popular film Forrest Gump (1994). The truth is, in real life, he did have legs.

 

He didn't have much say in his performance, not against a raging bull..

 

Lieutenant Daaan...
What a great film.

 

But, Ferg, that was a green screen. They had that, even back in the nineteen-nineties.

That's a completely different film now. How are we getting so screwed up in this thread? God.

 

So Tom Hanks didn't play a washed up old boxer.. With no legs???
Now I am confused.

 

I’m sure there were people around that he could have beaten. But he was basically done on the world scene. As already mentioned, his legs were failing him. And by the late 1980’s heavyweights were becoming increasingly bigger men. A career at cruiser was possible but unlikely. He was 212 lbs for the Tyson fight and in those days cruiser was below 195. I don’t know if dropping 20 lbs would have been doable or even very good for him at that point. If he absolutely insisted on sticking around then his best bet would have been to campaign for a super cash out fight with George Foreman and try his luck. Win or lose at least he’d make one big final check

 

Weren't his knees f"d up? He was wearing some sort of bandage on both knees against Tyson.

 

He did cash out with his last fight. I don’t think he could have stayed relevant long enough for Foreman to gain public traction.

 

Didn't he begin a comeback at one point before aborting it? Maybe they were just rumours.

Anyway like others said it was a good time for him to walk away. It would of been interesting if he came back and got a shot at an unmotivated Douglas in 90.

 

He could have thrown his name in the mix a year later. Gerry Cooney was retired for years before he got the foreman fight and was less relevant than Spinks by that point

 

He would only have been hurt, humiliated, or both. That already happened to him once…well, he was humiliated, at least.

 

He’d have had a good chance of beating Damiani and then going on a mediocre reign.

He probably would’ve been finished before Holyfield got the belts though.

 

He retired when he did for a reason.

If he fights on, then I don't think that the results are likely to enhance his legacy.

What he should have done is walk away after the Cooney fight.

Sure he looses a good pay day, but then his record is perfect.

 

Since he made no attempt, & clearly didn’t want to go through with, the fight with Tyson, we can assume he either needed the money, or wanted it very desperately.

It would be interesting had he retired how people would view him, & how they’d speculate on how the Tyson fight would go.

 

You said “clearly” so it must be true.

I saw a guy fighting aggressively against Mike after a big payday against Cooney and he ended up managing his money fairly well.