Indeed. In fact, it was probably my favorite of all the classic LHW brawls of the late '70s / early '80s. Lopez fought what I thought was one of his best performances (certainly his most aggressive and intense), while Spinks showed he had a lot of savvy and grit for someone so relatively young, as he stood up under Lopez's attack and calmly wore him down. This fight showed that Spinks had the stuff to be great.
For someone with such stiff legs, Spinks had really fluid upper-body movement. I think that's what made him so awkward to watch, but also where a lot of his power came from. He used those tree trunk legs as a base to whip his shots with full torque. Every punch he threw, including the jab, was just dynamite. Lopez was shopworn by this point, but clearly still very game, and he put up a very good effort. Spinks was just a dilemma for any LHW.
Lopez had devolved from poised boxer-puncher to a straight ahead aggressor by this point, albeit as pea says still a good game fighter.I think he might have known he didn't have the stamina/durability for 15 rounds anymore and just went all out for the KO.
Wow...I havent seen this since the first time I ever saw it..I remembering it being good but not that good. The atmosphere there sounded awesome.
I remember Spinks afterwords saying he never wanted to get near that Indian ever again ... Imagine what Lopez would have done to a Virgil Hill ? So much is based on the competition of the times ...