Could Anthony Joshua have smashed Michael Spinks (1988) out cold in round 1?

I just thought about that for a second

 

In the 80s ya. It wasnt common to see someone 6'5 260lbs like now. Spinks was scared of tyson I in the dressing room it prob wasnt his muscles lol but it does add that this guys in crazy shape scariness

 

AJ could do it but wouldn't. He is generally cautious and would have probably taken a round of to figure Spinks out.

Tyson on the other hand was a wrecking ball.

 

Spinks didn't fight Tucker because he eventually earned three times more to fight Cooney (after the closed circuit sales came in, I recall Spinks earning around $7 million). The HBO tournament was paying around $2 million.

And Cooney was bigger than Tucker and a bigger puncher.

I don't see Joshua knocking out Spinks in one, but I see Joshua eventually catching up to him. Spinks wouldn't be easy for Joshua to trap or stop, though.

But Joshua ends up winning.

 

Ur prob right. And it is a business gotta go with the best option for a fight

 

This. Michael Spinks was damaged goods by 1988.

 

Based on the Parker fight, not sure.

 

Not many fighters ever had that aura of danger like Tyson

Maybe Sonny Liston or George Foreman early in their careers.....

 

Yes AJ would’ve steamrolled 88 Spinks. That wasn’t the one that beat Holmes, it was the old out of shape version coming into the fight injured and a year layoff. He was in the Tyson fight for a paycheck, a lot of fighters could’ve knocked out spinks early that night, and I love Spinks.

 

Not sure what you mean, Joshua is 10x the puncher Larry was.

 

Joshua is not a single-punch K.O. artist like Tyson.

 

Not in the first no

He would definitely beat Spinks though

 

There’s a lot of truth in this, Spinks wasn’t beaten in the 1st round by Tyson he was beaten weeks before that!

Spinks did not have any belief in him that he could compete with Tyson let alone beat him, he was petrified and frozen by fear. As a result he became a mannequin with boxing gloves on and it was merely a matter of Tyson lowering the boom and finishing the fight.

Had Spinks come into the ring with belief in his own ability to box and be better than Tyson then he could have frustrated Mike and maybe taken it into the second half of the fight, although I think Mike would have got to him eventually.

So the key to this is does Spinks enter the ring against AJ scared for his life or does he enter full of belief?

Joshua is no doubt an intimidating opponent but he doesn’t have Tysons psychopathic persona and prowling predatorial menace!

So I believe Spinks makes it a fight but is hugely outgunned by Joshua in everything but speed and only makes the 6th before being battered into submission.

 

Hell no. AJ wasnt a fraction of the scary beast that was a Prime Mike Tyson!