Archie Moore Rated Michael Spinks over Ezzard Charles ...

Spinks power is underrated. That left uppercut he used to KO Johnson and the torque he put into that blow was just awesome.

 

Eddie Gregory was a LAZY fighter. Spinks was miles ahead of him in terms a championship heart and desire. Gregory did nothing with any sense of urgency.

 

You're right Perry. He had all his head demons which put him outside of any ATG discussion.
But Spinks was behind him in PURE talent. After losing 20 lbs. in short order to defend against Spinks after his stupid Snipes effort, he was clearly in charge early before running out of gas.
Spinks? A great fighter. Gregory? Better than Spinks *see head demons* Perhaps the greatest underachiever in boxing history.

 

Then goes on to say how he would beat Spinks. So he can beat the guy who is better than Charles. Interesting.

 

Running out of gas also coincided with his right eye ending up completely shut too. Most believed this to be from an elbow, something Michael was possibly the best in history at LOL. EMM actually showed some great heart this fight, he had trouble seeing what was coming from Spinks and probably never saw the booming right hand that dropped him late. Not many could have gotten up and survived that, Eddie had a great chin. A bit more fire in the belly and he and spinks may have had a great rivalry.

 

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He doesn't have the insane resume of a guy like Charles (Moore's is immense too) but he has wins over super fighters like EMM and Braxton as well as some extremely respectable contenders at a time when the division was extremely strong. He was also never beaten there. So tho his stay wasn't overly long it was of high quality and he has all the tools and easily passes the eye test.

 

To be fair Spinks was fighting just his 14th and 16th pro fights when he fought Lopez and Johnson. This is very serious opposition at that stage of a career and imo greats wins via that criteria.

Obviously amateur experience, age and physical development and other such stuff factors but Ezzard had his own struggles and losses after such a point.

Spinks could be lazy and uninspired and his struggle with Davis isn't too much of a neg for me. On another night i could see him pole axing Eddie. They all have these type of fights, Holmes had Weaver, Louis had this one and that one etc.