Let’s say Larry Holmes gets injured in training for his May 1986 rematch with Michael Spinks. Butch Lewis looks around and finds Mitch Green as a replacement. Green is already signed to fight Tyson but backs out for a shot at the IBF title. my prediction is Spinks soundly outboxes green for a decision win. But how do you see it playing out ?
Spinks finds that chin regularly by jabbing low and coming over the top with the right. Wouldn’t be Surprised if he took him out, but would favour him on points.
If it were a 15 round title fight which in 1986 for the IBF it most likely would have been, a stoppage might be possible. Green never went beyond 10.
Now that I realise that, Green never got the experience with fights that long, 5 rounds is a big difference from 10-15, and maybe Tyson could’ve got to him had it been even 12 rounds. Considering Green never got the experience going beyond so much as 10 rounds, I see Spinks dragging him into deep waters and Spinks did indeed have killer instinct, he wasn’t a safety first guy in the sense of settling for a points win, he’d go for the finish when he had guys hurt, and that’s a big misconception that people seem to have about him, probably because, first off, he came in with no killer instinct against Tyson, and secondly, his most famous win (Holmes) was won with low volume, but when he got guys hurt, he did go for the finish. Not saying he was reckless, he was an intelligent boxer who set up his attacks, baited opponents, had a look to see where the gaps where, just saying that when he did get through and saw that they were hurt, he’d try to get the stoppage, which may actually be less risky because, while there’s a higher chance of you getting clipped yourself, if you don’t go for the stoppage, you risk letting them back into the fight to go on to hurt you or, if it’s not late on, for them to still nick the fight. Spinks TKO 14 or so.