1970 Bobby Foster VS 1988 Mikey Spinks

Frankly, there's not much, but I'll take a stab at describing some of what was there in the way of a heavyweight resume.

Whitehurst was sliding when he squared off with Bob, in Bert's penultimate bout. This was just Foster's ninth professional bout, and a first round knockdown was the margin by which the youngster took an eight round SD over the cagey veteran. Whitehurst was 195 to Bob's 176.

Hot and cold German Willie Besmanoff was a decent HW scalp when Bob stopped him in three during December 1963. At that stage, Besmanoff had been stopped six times: in his professional debut, an avenged fourth round loss, in seven rounds each by Liston, Lavorante and Clay/Ali, in ten rounds by the Mongoose, and in four rounds by Chuvalo. Defeating Besmanoff was no great shakes. But that Bob did it faster than anybody else until Chuvalo beat him up again in 1967 is fairly respectable. Willie was then a veteran of 81 bouts. This seems to have been Foster's best stoppage of a heavyweight opponent. Besmanoff weighed 204 to Bob's 182.

Charley Retzlaff protege Don Quinn was a powerful 31 year old toe to toe slugger with a 23-9 record when Bob took a minute to ice him and end his career in November 1964. At 209 pounds, Quinn was the biggest heavyweight with a winning record Foster would knock out until his first match with the heavily juiced Bob Hazelton for his final career win in 1977. Bob weighed 177 for Quinn, so this is a very good result for somebody competing at a deficit of 32 pounds.

Roy "Cookie" Wallace was a 212 pound journeyman heavyweight with just an 8-12-2 record when Bob knocked him out in six during March 1970. Wallace had previously been knocked out in seven by the other Foster, Mac, and in two rounds by Foreman. Wallace would ultimately be stopped 13 times in 61 bouts, always by excellent opponents. Aside from the aforementioned, Wallace was stopped by Norton, Bonavena, Bunny Johnson, Shavers, Duane Bobick, Schutte, Leroy Jones, John Tate and Shelburg. Along the way, Wallace also picked up wins over LeDoux (a cut eye stoppage in two, Scott's first defeat), Daniels, Rahman Ali, Leroy Caldwell (in three rounds-only Shavers, Foreman and Bonavena would ever take out Leroy faster), Ray Anderson (avenging an earlier defeat to this championship distance challenger of Bob's, then coming off a win over Goyo Peralta in Madrid), Boudreaux (avenging another earlier defeat), and his final knockout win was a ninth round stoppage of Nick Wells. So despite his losing record, Cookie Wallace had some quality, making this a decent win. At 177 pounds, Bob was far and away the lightest man to knock Wallace out.

Bob was 39 years old when he took on the ridiculously juiced Hazelton in September 1977. Hazelton had injected himself up to 215 pounds, 36 more than he was for his disastrous 1966 debut against O'Halloran, he came in riding a ten fight streak of quick knockouts, and had just retired Manuel Ramos. But Hazelton had never won over a distance longer than five rounds, and Foster drowned him in ten. The rematch would be a different story, but that first match must have been something to see. Bob Foster KO 10 Steroids.

 

@Duo: Thanks for taking the time to analyse Foster's heavyweight exploits in detail. :good

 

Thanks. I'm sometimes like a pig in slop when it comes to trivial minutia and detailed analysis. (Before I retired, I worked as an auditor, something requiring anal retentiveness.)

I understand Bob going for the big bucks in challenging Frazier and Ali, but wonder why he didn't make a stab at defeating a lesser heavyweight contender of stature first. I think it would be a good exercise to consider who would have been reputable HW opponents for him to have taken on at the time that he might have been able to beat. The smallish Ellis perhaps? (This might have been a decent risk after Bob lost to Ali, if he still wanted HW credibility. Jimmy did well between Ali and Shavers, against vastly diluted competition.) Maybe the smallish Cooper? If Sir 'Enenry nailed Foster, Bob would be dead, but Cooper could be chinny himself, and Foster was a sharp enough puncher to slice Henry up. Perhaps the sometimes passive Bugner? If aroused, Joe would kill him, and he had the height, reach, speed and mobility to outbox Bob from long range. But if the Bugner who showed up for Bodell appears...(And the chinny Bodell might be another good HW opponent for Bob.)

Thad Spencer would have been interesting. He did beat Terrell, exchanging knockdowns with Ernie in the process, but kept his right foot in the bucket like Bob, which might handicap the 5'11" Spencer against the 6'4" Foster.

Garcia? The 6'4" Venezuelan weighed 188 for his upset of Norton, and had been stopped in six by the 172 pound Allen Thomas six months prior to Norton. Garcia was hot in the two years after Norton I, and Bob for once would have been taking on a HW contender with comparable height and weight to himself. (Foster getting to Norton before Garcia might have been another possibility.)

Henry Clark? The steel chinned Clark could occasionally turn one over and inflict a nasty surprise, like he did to starch Candy Slim Merritt in avenging an earlier loss, but he wasn't typically a lethal bomber, and defensively limited. The 183 pound Fred Lewis pushed Clark to a ten round SD, the 183 pound Charlie James took him the ten round limit immediately prior to the Clark-Merritt II shocker, and the 179 pound Bobby Stininato boxed the 213 pound Clark to a ten round draw. So Bob Foster-Henry Clark might have been a viable pairing if Bob was ever going to outpoint a credible HW.

 

You sure your not teddy atlas? Cause every thread I see you in it's about trying to bash Tyson's accomplishments.

 

Let's face it, Spinks had a punch, speed, skill, and footwork, and a pretty good chin, and Foster had some chin issues when he met solid punchers. I say Spinks by KO at some point. If Doug Jones at 182 could KO Foster, so could Spinks.

 

I personally would agree with this assessment:good

 

:goodThanks Duodenum:good

 

This could be a very good fight. I think Spinks dominates the early rounds out-boxing Foster and maybe works his way to a close UD. Foster is more than capable of knocking out Spinks. He was a very hard punching light-heavy.

 

Uh, Foster was a light-heavy who challenged heavyweights. He didn't fight specifically at heavyweight.

 

No **** Sherlock. :rofl

 

So why did you call him a mediocre heavyweight Dr. Watson?

Where's the logic?

 

Because this topic is soley regarding heavyweight versions of Foster & Spinks.

Happy now? :blurp

 

Well, if you wanted to get technical about it (and I'm admittedly thinking way too much about it), Bob did weigh over the LHW limit in each of the victories over HW opponents I detailed earlier, if only by a pound or two at times. He did weigh 174 for the loss to Doug Jones.

Chuck Leslie is generally recorded as a heavyweight, although he did have several bouts at or below 175. He was 10-5-1 when Bob first took him out in three during a May 1965 LHW bout in the Big Easy. Only Frazier and Lyle ever took out Leslie faster than Bob did on this first occasion (Lyle in retiring Leslie). They reprized this as 180 pound heavyweights four years later, returning to New Orleans during a November 1969 bout as the region was recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Camille. Leslie was 20-18-5 by then, and the now LHW Champion eliminated him in five. Chuck would later take Shavers into the tenth round before succumbing.

Leslie was another one of these journeymen with a losing record who was better than his final numbers suggest. He had wins over Spencer (Thad's second loss, later avenged over the distance), Tony Doyle (his second defeat, also avenged over the distance-Tony was the one man aside from Mathis to defeat Frazier as an amateur, something Joe repaid him for in two rounds), Gullick (Ted's first defeat), Devil Green, Dick Hall, Davila, Fred Lewis (avenging an earlier defeat of his own), fast southpaw amateur GG HW Champion Jim Rosette, Tex Henderson, and he handed Roger Russell his third defeat. (Russell had beaten Leotis Martin and drawn with Folley. But then looking as though he might amount to something, his career went permanently on the skids after 1968. Chuck still beat Russell when it meant something though.)

He drew with Greg Peralta in Buenos Aires, then Billy Joiner in his next match. He lost an SD to Tony Alongi, and an MD to Andy Kendall. Among those who also failed to take Leslie out were Norton, Big Train Lincoln, Mina, Ellis and Lovell. Overall, Chuck (who had rematches against no less than seven different opponents during his career) was stopped four times in his first 48 fights, once to Roger Rouse in Leslie's third month of competition (and his first ten rounder-Chuck was still a six round novice and Rouse stopped him in seven), once to an undefeated up and coming Frazier, and twice by Bob.

 

The reason why Foster never had a big win among HW ranks is that he has the frame of a LHW ( even a MW). Even if he did inflate his muscles with roids and become 220 pounds he still had the chin of a LHW because he had the structure of a LHW.
Look him losing to Frazier: Joe was not a giant of any means but was more robust and sturdy.

 

Exactly what I was thinking when I saw this crap make believe fight? Sounds like someone talking about a 6th grade fight behind the school building.

"Did ya hear, Bobby is fighting Mikey after school."