Evander Holyfield vs Michael Spinks at Cruiserweight

Holyfield was much easier to hit than Spinks, this would be very close.

 

IMO Holyfield simply better in every department, breaks up Spinks late in the championship rounds for a brutal stoppage

 

So close it could be a draw .

 

Some good hypothetical matchups being posed in recent threads and this is another one.

It's hard not to lean towards Holyfield here because he was a proven cruiserweight, plus he had great success at heavyweight.

But I think Spinks could have been a really good cruiserweight himself - maybe not as good as he was at light-heavy, but definitely world champion had he chosen to compete there.

I'm going to say Holyfield on points but Spinks would give him a lot to think about.

 

This would be an awesome contest. Both of them fought Qawi in 2 of my favorite contests, not that those match ups have any bearing on this outside of a performance against a common opponent.

I think Spinks would utilize the jab and move as much as he could but that Evander would press and force exchanges that he would fare better in and more so as the fight progresses.

Even through 10 with Holy winning the 11th and 12th and stopping Spinks in the 13th in an exciting fight!

 

Nice - your version of the fight sounds more exciting than mine so I'll go with your one instead.

 

Every department?

 

Holyfield stops him late in a close fight

At heavyweight, however, this is a much more 1-sided fight for Holyfield

 

I have to go with Michael Spinks. He was much more experienced at the championship level and had a lot more guile. At that point, I'd pick him to win via UD.

 

Holyfield for me, and frankly I'm not envisioning many ways spinks could win this fight.

 

Seems like Holyfield was too raw at cruiser. More so before the second Qawi fight. I would say Spinks soundly schools any version of Holyfield before Qawi 2

 

Holyfield was stronger and a better infighter .He presses the action and stops Spinks

 

In the Olympics, MSpinks was a MW....Holy was a LtHeavy. MSpinks won a Gold....and Holy got disqualified, but won a bronze.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/10/sports/boxing-holyfield-of-us-is-disqualified.html
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...holyfield-robbed-of-gold-in-the-1984-olympics

 

There would be nothing in this. Holyfield more natural at the weight but also a bit underdone experience wise but rapidly improving. You'd take the Holyfield of Qawi 2/De Leon and Spinks would built up to 190 to fight Holyfield instead of 199 for Holmes.

If i was posting odds i'd make Spinks a narrow fave. Great matchup.