Anybody remember the Leon Spinks-Jesse Burnett fight

If I remember correctly he got caught on the temple by Coetzee and about all that dude could do was punch. He was completely done by the time he fought Qawi. Thay was just an awful performance. Regarding the Holmes fight, I remember a lot of folks thought he had a good chance in that fight coming off his impressive win against Mercado. It just wasn't to be.

 

To what fight in ‘81 are you referring?

 

Well he didn’t rob of us a great fight by being way better than the guy he beat. It wasn’t a great fight because it turned out to be a mismatch — Larry was just at a much higher level.

 

Finally got my chance to watch this again and I gotta tell you, a damn good fight. Leon had the better workrate early until Burnett started zeroing in with accurate, clean shots. Leon threw a lot but so many were caught on the arms of Burnett, whereas Jesse's punches were finding their mark. It was interesting to hear Gil Clancy and Tim Ryan in agreement that Leon needed a KO to win. Personally, I had it 115-113 for Burnett. Two points may not be categorized as a robbery, but tell that to Burnett. The ultimate hard-luck fighter.

 

Larry never stops jabbing. Never.

 

Go back and look at I think the third round. There’s a false bell (early) and Larry lets his guard down and Leon charges in and hits him. And Larry gets pissed.

EDIT: It’s the second round. Which ends in a shootout after the false bell.

From that point on he beat the tar out of Neon Leon. I love Spinks — it hurt me when he got iced by Coetzee — but Larry had a gear Spinks couldn’t weather. And he hit that gear and stayed there until it was over. He Easton assassinated him.

 

Well Holmes never was a guy that just danced entire fights. He mixed it up. Even when he wanted to rumble his jab was always first setting up the right hand

 

I rate prime Holmes very high. Top 3 HWC in my book

 

It was a good fight, kind of young when it happened, but there was controversy about Leon winning.