FANTASY FIGHT: Michael Spinks vs Roy Jones Jr (15 Rounds/Poll)

Went with Spinks without hesitation.

I have no doubt he’d set up the knockout punch. He could adapt mid-fight.

He may struggle to time Jones for the first few rounds, but he’d definitely find the opening and capitalise.

 

Very tough pick. I’m gonna say Spinks present challenges Roy didn’t normally have with bigger men. Roy’s a great boxer but maybe has to be cautious enough that Spinks wins split decision.

 

I got Spinks to win. RJJ, gifted as he was, didn't fight anyone as good and powerful as Spinks at 175. Spinks wasn't just bigger but he had an usual style that was difficult to figure out, an unpredictable attack pattern, power in both hands, and was very smart in the ring. A dangerous combination for RJJ to overcome. Spinks has also managed to beat a variety of different styles and I think he would not be intimidated by RJJ's speed.

By no means would this have been an easy fight for Spinks though. This would have been a fascinating match up to see given how elite level both of these guys are.

 

I watched Roy vs. Hill last night and outside of the right hand body KO wasn't super impressed. It seemed like he was often times trying harder to make the show of winning than actually achieving effective aggression. And Hill's size seemed to influence a lot of what Roy was doing.

I rank Roy very highly, and although I didn't love him at the time, I have come to really admire him. He was a very, very good lightheavy but 160-168 was his peak. That's where he comes into the GOAT conversation, at least in a head to head context.

I have a hard time picking Roy to beat a guy who at 175 was undefeated and ran the gauntlet of Johnson, Muhammad, Lopez, Qawi, etc. I have to go with Mike.

 

There's a bit more to this one.

Eddie weighed 201 3/4 on the 17/05/81 when he tried his luck at heavyweight against Renaldo Snipes. He fought Spinks on the 18/07. So basically he had to drop close to 26 pounds in 2 months and be fighting fit. That's a bit of weight for fine tuned boxers. He also missed the mark by 1 3/4 pounds at 12.30 in the morning pre fight. At 2.21 he hit 175 on the dot after three speels of skipping.

Two things happened. He hit the wall as the fight went on (as one would completely expect) and also had his left eye almost shut after the 8th round. Imagine facing Spinks with one shut eye. As you said, he was also heavily dropped in the 12th.

I'm not making excuses, just adding context. He was doing it reasonably easy in the first half of the fight. To be fair Spinks was a slow starter, he knew Mustafa would struggle later, and he was still improving a bit. Mustafa showed a fair bit of mettle rising from that massive right hand late.

 

Thats totally reasonable mate and it's good to add context.

The knockdown Muhammad suffered aswell there's no way RJJ could of took that IMO.

Especially the follow up from Spinks where Muhammad had to take quite a bit of punishment to see the round out.

As I said before I do like RJJ but he's never really fought against a fighter who has genuine 1 punch KO power especially against a bigger man aswell.

 

Agreed mate. Spinks is incredible at 175 and supremely confident there. He's a different beast from the one we saw at heavyweight. He's always going to come into big fights there completely ready to roll given his mental toughness, Eddie's brilliance in his corner (and pre fight strategy) and his own willingness to follow Eddie's plan.

Spinks wife Sandy died in a car accident just 2 months earlier to the bout with Qawi. Right before the fight their 2yo was brought into the dressing room and asked "where's mommy" as Spinks broke down crying. The mental toughness involves to go out and win such a fight must have been truly special.

 

Spinks wins this.

The problem here is most people only remember Spinks getting obliterated by a prime young focused Tyson.

Prior to that Spinks was the first reigning light heavyweight champion to challenge and defeat the reigning heavyweight champion. Larry Holmes no less. Something past greats Billy Conn, Archie Moore, and Bob Foster all failed to do.

Spinks the fighter was complete and could do it all. At 6' 2" Spinks was one of the biggest light heavyweight Champions in history. His fighting style is best described as being a boxer-puncher. He was a tremendous two handed puncher who could box and dictate with his jab and knew how to utilize his height and reach versus taller and shorter opponents with unorthodox angles. As he was forced to do in his Light Heavyweight unification bout with 5' 7" WBC Champ Dwight Muhammad Qawi, and against the 6' 6" hard hitting Gerry Cooney.

History should show that he was never off his feet prior and it took one of boxing’s hardest, fastest hitters ever to accomplish that knockdown and stoppage. However Tyson was his last fight because Spinks knees were shot, you can see a knee brace being worn for the Cooney fight prior.

In the last 16 fights of his career were all title fights in which he went 15-1, 11-0 at light heavyweight and 4-1 at heavyweight.

Jones has the speed but Spinks was so awkward and good that by the time Roy figures him out Spinks will have already got his timing down.

Roy is getting slept.

 

Roy Jr, with his blinding speed and lightning reflexes, is a problem for anyone, at least from 160-175 and for many even heavier.

Michael Spinks was a problem-solver.

You don’t destroy Marvin Johnson, a hard-hitting southpaw with a championship pedigree, in your 16th fight without being able to solve problems.

You don’t then best Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, a skilled and seasoned boxer-puncher, next fight out to win a world title without being a problem-solver.

And you don’t later find a way to solve the difficult puzzle that was Dwight Muhammad Qawi — a literally sawed-off buzz-saw — to unify the light heavyweight titles without without being something special.

Not to mention his exploits at heavyweight, where he found a way to outjab the best jab in the division’s history to upend Larry Holmes.

Michael Spinks cleaned out one division and become lineal at heavyweight. He faced all sorts of styles, all kinds of fighters with every attribute there is to face, and only lost his final fight after his knees had broken down in a division that wasn’t really his against a shooting star of an opponent at his peak.

I don’t know exactly how he would do it (but I figure it would start with that amazing jab), but Spinks would find a way against Roy Jr. He had one-punch power in both hands and could box your ears off or break you down. I figure he and Jones trade enough rounds that after 10 it’s probably about 5-5, but Michael has found his range and begun to put real punching pressure on Roy by the 11th.

He begins to batter Roy Jr and in the 13th, seeing it slipping away, Jones makes a stand. And when he does, that Spinks Jinx right hand gets through to end it.

Michael KO 13.

 

I would make Spinks a mild favorite.

Like if I were an oddsmaker, I’d say 2 to 1 is too much. It’d be more like a -150

 

I voted for Spinks because he's the better boxer and arguably the sharper shooter

but Roy was just so fast, he was lighting fast, the fastest that ever was, you truly never saw it coming regardless if he set up the shot or did not.

How can you possibly evade and hit something that you cannot see?

 

I picked Spinks as you can see, but about Roy vs Virgil Hill …Hill had the best jab in the division at the time and I think Roy specifically wanted to take it away and beat him with a counter of it. He chose a crippling body shot under the jab.

It’s one of the most devastating KOs I have ever seen, a durable, world-class guy taken out by one (very much planned and not random) body shot.

Give Roy Jr his flowers on that one.

 

Brutal knockout, Virgil Hill just crumbled apart and whined in pain

When i first watched it i felt it through the screen, you could see it in his face it looked like he was in agony, like he was shot or something

 

Amazingly, and not often noted, Virgil actually beat the count.

Good stoppage, no doubt. He was finished. But he had the fighting spirit to rise and at least be willing to try to continue.

 

Really? i didn't know this, thank your for sharing this

Virgil's one brave and tough sob, if it was me who got hit with that i wouldn't have even gotten up until next week