Outside of a young Tyson, how would Spinks have done if he continued?

Not well. Inactivity and age had taken its toil even before the crushing defeat by Mike Tyson and he had previously shown no interest or desire in been a stepping stone for the younger bigger generation of heavyweights that would inevitably emerge. Still there was still possible big profile fights with George Foreman and of course a third fight with Larry Holmes would still be of big interest.

 

There was nowhere for Spinks to go after his loss to Tyson, I 've never been that impressed with him at heavyweight and he'd have gotten chewed up if he continued to fight.

 

His knees were pretty much shot at that point. The Tyson fight was purely a money grab for him and Butch Lewis at that point. He basically had an offer he could not refuse to fight Tyson that he would not have gotten to fight anyone else. I think he was contact to ride off into the sunset after the Cooney fight.

 

Spinks would have been stopped by Witherspoon, (Smith is debatable, MS might have outboxed him), stopped by Holy, eventually knocked cross-eyed by Bowe, demolished by Lewis.

But he might have have beaten guys like Tubbs, Tucker, Thomas. Maybe Weaver...I don't know, depends on which Weaver shows up. Mike had the ability to throw Tyson-level punches, he was just too inconsistent in his both attack and concentration to stay on top (his questionable chin wouldn't have been at risk with Michael imo). Page is a toss up.

He'd be a lock to beat up guys like Broad, Tillis, decision Berbick imo.

Even late 80s George...all he needed were a couple of flush punches. Even in that early part of his comeback, he was still nastily effective. Look what happened to Qawi. I mean, Michael would have put up a heck of a better fight than Dwight, but I still can't see him making it 8 even against that version of BG.

 

Even if he was physically capable he was just too small for most of the heavyweights. He made the right choice by retiring

 

His knees were GONE!!! He should’ve retired after Cooney and honestly probably before that but the Cooney fight was financially rewarding to him as was the Tyson fight, too much money to turn down I guess.

 

He was shot both physically and mentally, talking about retirement IN THE BUILD UP to the Tyson fight, not a good sign, essentially even if he had recuperated physically his heart wasn't in it anymore, he just wanted to relax and enjoy his retirement.

 

Its hard to imagine how a undersized heavyweight like Spinks would do in a prolonged run at heavyweight during his time which was a time when the heavyweight division was stacked. I think he'd have to fight real hard in order to win any match ups against the other top heavies in the division. He was over powered by an older Holmes and had to fight his heart out and move and be busy to steal both of those fights I think guys like Witherspoon, Old George, Tubbs, Thomas and Tucker would over power him and be skilled enough too do the same he'd have to try to steal victories from them as well moving and being busy. He'd probably be able to beat Berbick, Smith, Bruno or Page just off his combination punching and skills. Holyfield would've been a fun fight and I think the real deal who grew into a heavyweight much better would beat him convincingly. A young Lewis and Bowe I think would be able to get him out of there like Tyson did just in a few more rounds if not win decisions.

Spinks overall was a great fighter and that moved up to heavyweight after proving to be a great dominate light heavyweight. He brought his skills and ability up and in two fights with an older Larry Holmes who could still fight well and had a lot of incentive in there first meeting to tie Marciano and there second meeting to avenge the first loss. Spinks won both times in my opinion as well as the judges over 15 rounds and did it by fighting his heart out and stealing rounds with flurries of punches. Holmes seemed motivated especially in the second fight and still lost to Spinks proving that Spinks was very effective at heavyweight Since he was able to do this twice to Holmes its possible he'd be able to do it again against other top heavyweights. He also knocked out Gerry Cooney who was a big guy and a good fighter who had no reason to come in anything but at his best when he fought Spinks. You gotta give it to Spinks for avoiding Cooney's power and taking out the big man. But I think he was exposed by Tyson as being undersized the way he was blown out I think this could happen to him against other heavyweight puncher though with his ability I'd still look for him to be competitive and steal fights against most of the top opposition. Spinks had a great ability of staling during his fights and finding openings for himself to land and finish fights. Spinks was truly one of the great fighters of the 80's and though I think at heavyweight he was much more beatable then light heavyweight I'd still give him a good chance against a lot of the top fighters at heavyweight of his time though I'd give a lot of the heavyweights of his time a chance of beating him on a given night as well.

 

Those bad legs meant he could no longer stay away on the outside the way he loved. Look at how fast Tyson closed the gap on him.

the tall boxer types like Tucker and douglas are a bad matchup. A physical guy like Bruno is going to make him dig real deep if he does manage to get the win.

And just who is going to pay the guy anyway? Look at all the money for the Tyson match. now you will put him on a prelim card for maybe 100-300K? Anyone really think he signs those contracts?

Wear and tear and those knees getting worse are not the solution to continuing to win fights against upper echelon opponents. Aside from Holmes--who was sliding--& Tyson, he was not fighting the best guys out there. Now throwing him into that mix after a brutal defeat and about 1/40th the payday.

 

After that fight he wouldn't have done as well. His opponents would have tried to use their size to blast him out more and go to the body. Even a guy like Tony Tucker would have been big trouble for Spinks I think. Frank Bruno? The blueprint is now seen on how to beat them. Remember when Hearns fought Hagler, guys would pressure him more and try to take him out like Hagler did. Not many succeeded , but things got tougher for Tommy. Also he started to decline a little, but once a fighter has a lose it seems like the blueprint is there, and other fighters use that.

 

I'm not sure if he d have carried on he could ever have gotten high in the ranks again.
Tyson wiping him out in seconds would have smashed his confidence and its not as if he was a young guy then. This was mainly before the days when boxers, especially heavyweights, seemed to do fairly well in to their later years.
It's interesting to think that Spinks could have faced Buster Douglas around 1989, could have been a interesting one to watch.

 

That would have been interesting. But when I think of Michael against Witherspoon, Bonecrusher, even the Foreman of '88 to '89...I see wipeout.