Larry Holmes vs. Michael Spinks I

Its the weekend, you been drinking Whiskey?. Holmes hurt Spinks numerous times during the rematch, not the first fight.

I will give you some facts. Holmes plodded forward almost excusively behind the jab, and seldom threw the right hand with any authority over the 15 rounds. A rough estimate, maybe six times. And he also never put many combinations together.

Your speaking to a massive Holmes fan, probably as much as yourself, but I'm not biased. I'm not saying you are, as you maybe geniunely believe Holmes won the fight.

Holmes edged the close rounds based on him walking forward and being the aggressor, but lets be truthful about the situation, Holmes' variety and effective power shots were few and far between.

 

Yep.

First one to Spinks.

Rematch to Holmes.

 

Holmes won the rematch. That was a very bad decision. He won the first 5 rounds clearly, which would have meant he needed to win 3 of the last 10 rounds to get the nod. And he did that in my eyes.

Holmes was so much better, his right hand was being thrown with regularity, and his work was more authoritive.

 

My recollection from the 2nd fight was that Spinks acknowledged that the he may have been on the short end of a close fight but that he felt that champions often get the edge in close fights and that Holmes had been given similar decisions. I recall thinking that it was odd that he was playing the "I'm the Champion" card after his first defense.

You could make many similarities to the 2 fight sequences between Spinks-Holmes and Leon Spinks-Ali, except that Holmes got robbed in the rematch.

 

I was talking the rematch with the hurt things. Although, Larry did shake and hurt Michael pretty bad in the 15, in which Mike ran the rest of the round. In my eyes, not a true champions move. Larry would have stood there toe-toe, like he did with Norton.

 

I watched them over, the 1st fight was a clear win for Spinks IMO, the 2nd was closer, Holmes was agressive early but Spinks landed a lot of jabs and hooks and a few rights, I thought Spinks finished well to retain his crown not as clear as the 1st but Holmes did not do enough to take the Crown back IMO

 

Holmes should have retired after the Williams fight, which showed me he was just about done for.

 

Well you skipped fights Bill because i highlighted your first fight comments per score and that's the only fight people could think you were talking about. Go back and read.

So you are now saying Holmes didn't hurt Spinks often in the initial encounter? What rounds did you score for Holmes in the first fight, i can't fathom how anybody could score it for The Mallard, just as i can't understand how the rematch went the way it did either. What's your card breakdown? 8-7 Holmes

 

Yeah, if he was a real champion he would've stood there toe to toe when he was hurt and got his head knocked off so that he lost the fight but would've still been able to call himself the "real" champion in the morning, only without a belt. :nut

 

This fight will always split opinions as to who won. But in my opinion Spinks deserved a close but clear victory. Holmes was outboxed and outsmarted. Deep down Holmes must know he lost the first fight, he was just angry with himself for underestimating Spinks to some extent and messing up his chances of achieving 49-0. I feel a prime Holmes would have handed Spinks a comfortable loss, as I feel Holmes did much better in the rematch.

 

Yeah, bet you didn't see Larry on his bike vs Shavers, especially when he got hurt! Toe to toe vs Cooney all the way too, and in the 4th round vs Tyson it wasn't Larry you spotted bouncing around the ring.

:hey

 

Peak Holmes would have been a nightmare for Spinks. Holmes was a corpse that first fight, it was embarrassing. Serves him right for taking Spinks so lightly, especially after using the good old standby (i took him too lightly and didn't train hard enough) so many times thru his career. Even in big decline Holmes trained hard for the rematch and was the better man. Holmes stamina at his peak would have rendered Spinks unable to mount any sort of offensive all the way thru 15 rounds. Personally i don't think he would have survived.

 

But it's never split opinions. Around 90% say Spinks won- and always did. Hardly qualifies a split.

 

It seems to be locked in the lore of "greatest robberies in boxing" might be because people confuse it with the rematch. Or it could be that most people who can be bothered to comment on the fight are massive Holmes fans who look for a way to inflate their hero's achievements.

 

That's it. Just Bill and his Goldfish mates call it a bad one.