Spinks would beat the version of Beterbiev that fought Gvozdyk and Browne, but the Beterbiev that just fought Joe Smith ? He beats everyone in history except Tyson Fury. Beterbiev vs Fury is a competitive fight 2 ATG Super heavyweights going at it !!
He just beat Joe Smith. Why are all these threads popping up matching him against legends. As if all of a sudden beating Joe Smith means Beterbiev’s chances against these guys are higher. Joe Smith. A very limited fighter that has gotten utterly schooled multiple times.
Beterbiev really impressed me last night and he's a handful for anyone at that weight. But,,,he nowhere near possesses the body of work or quality of opponents to think he take Michael Spinks. Babality is right, just because he beats Joe Smith he takes out Spinks and Foster?
Spinks. Until Ward low blowed and fouled his way through light heavy... Spinks was the only undefeated light heavyweight champion in boxing history. Something that can't be said about Tommy Loughran, John Henry Lewis, Billy Conn, Archie Moore, Bob Foster, or Roy Jones. In 101 years of crowning light heavyweight champion's, only one of them never tasted defeat while weighing 175 pounds, Michael Spinks. Spinks was also 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. 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. His legacy was heavily tarnished by the one loss on his record: Mike Tyson. 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. 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.
It seems to me that there have been over 10 attempts to challenge the light heavyweight champion and defeat the heavyweight champion. Do you know exactly how many attempts there were before Michael Spinks succeeded? None of these aces (Tommy Loughran, John Henry Lewis, Billy Conn, Archie Moore, Bob Foster, Roy Jones, Michael Spinks, Ezzard Charles ...) would have an easy night against Arthur Beterbiev.