How long could Michael Spinks have ruled at light heavyweight?

Not very long. His knees would've give way at some point anyway.

 

For ever probably!

 

Michael moved up to dethrone Larry Holmes in the fall of 1985 and he’s obviously the top light heavyweight through that year if he stays at 175.

If you look at what happened in the division after he left, you see Marvin Johnson — whom Spinks jinxed handily way back in 1981 — ascending to top Eddie Davis and Leslie Stewart to take the WBA crown and Dennis Andries, Thomas Hearns and Donnie Lalonde taking turns with the WBC belt into 1987.

I could see a big-money Spinks-Hearns bout sometime in that span, and Virgil Hill is coming onto the scene also in the latter part of 1987 as a champion.

So I think Spinks beats Hearns and probably beginning to fade enough that Hill would outpoint him to take the crown. Jeff Harding was a big, strong guy who would probably have been too much for a declining Spinks by 1988 or ‘89.

 

By 86' his knees were pretty bad. He really wasn't the same guy after the first fight with Holmes. I heard from some local guys that he bombed Cooney out like he did because he couldn't train hard due to his knees. Normally Michael would have moved a lot more than he did.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/13/sports/michael-spinks-is-under-pressure.html

Michael virtually ended his own career and moved into Leon's shadow. A knee injury kept him on the sidelines almost all of 1979. It happened, he said, from running with combat boots on concrete. ''The doctor said something had to give,'' said Michael, ''and it wasn't going to be the concrete or the boots.''

Is this were it all started? Did it become worse before he went up to HW, or afterwards, due to training with weights?

 

Till this day

 

Interesting question. As has been said above, and regardless of whether it would have many any difference at all to the outcome, his knees were clearly an issue by the time he fought Tyson in 1988, which was his last fight. So let's assume that even if he'd never moved up to Heavyweight, he quits the ring in 1988.

The champions (I won't bother including the WBO, as they didn't have their inaugural champion until late 1988 by which time Spinks had already been blown out by Tyson) who came between 1985 when Spinks vacated his titles and 1988 were as follows:
WBC: Williamson, Andries, Hearns, Lalonde
WBA: Johnson (who he'd already brained a few years before), Stewart, Hill
IBF: Kacar, Czyz, Williams

Presumably Spinks is going to have to tussle with at least three or four of these guys in the coming years. Some of them you can dismiss straight off the bat: Kacar never shed that upright, amateurish style. Too passive, too limited, useless fighting inside - to be honest I had him losing to an over-the-hill Eddie. Williamson must be one of the worst 175 lb champions in history; his fight with Andries resembled two drunkards outside the pub at times. Andries himself was all-action by this stage and very game, but as predictable and limited as they come and too crude to beat Spinks, even a fading version. Johnson - as I said already knocked spark out by Spinks a few years back - was running on fumes at this point.

His history-making win over Holmes does tend to make people forget that Spinks, though he never lost, was starting to look a bit shakier at 175 before he vacated the titles. Davis could easily have got the decision over him on another day, and MacDonald gave him a really tough encounter which he looked relieved to have survived. Neither of those guys were particularly smooth but they had success pressing Spinks and hit him with a lot of wide, clubbing shots which you wouldn't normally see him taking.

Hearns and Hill are the obvious threats, particularly Hill with his movement against Spinks' cruddy knees. Maybe Czyz, before his confidence-sapping loss to Williams, could have been a dark horse for a big upset around 1986 / 1987, simply because a less mobile Spinks, the wrong side of thirty and getting hit more, might have had a problem with Czyz's crouching attacks and ability to switch combinations between head and body with such intent. I'd still take Spinks there even if he was on the slide just because I find it hard to compute a fighter like Czyz beating an all-time great unless that great is shot to smithereens, but I think Bobby has a better chance than some of the names I mentioned above.

If I had to pick one guy to beat him, I'd say Hill.

 

He'd still be ruling today!

 

The fight with Davis is excellent. A lot of folks had Davis winning. Tough fight to score.

 

It certainly produced two of the most horrendous scorecards in history. Hazzard and Cortez were taking the mick with those scores. 118-111 and 119-109. Disgraceful stuff, really. Personally I think Spinks was a bit of a lucky boy on the night. Last time I scored it, I had Davis winning by a couple of points, and even that was with me giving Spinks the benefit of the doubt in a couple of the closer rounds. Or maybe I should put it this way: for me, the best you could say about Spinks in that fight is that maybe he didn't lose it, and might have done enough to keep his belts with a draw. He most definitely did not, in my opinion, win that fight.

 

There was a thread about this fight about a week ago. I scored for Spinks but some of those rounds were so close I could really see it going either way. Hazzard and Cortez **** all over themselves that night for sure. Davis really deserved a rematch but Spinks and Qawi was the big money fight that was being pushed.

 

Post your thoughts in the Davis fight here.

 

I was about to make this exact thread, but decided against it because it’s already been made.

I don’t know what caused his ankle problem, but providing he can keep it somewhat ok, he might have been ok at 175lbs since he didn’t have to move excessively there as at heavyweight.

Beats the likes of Leslie Stewart, Donnie Lalonde and eventually the early crowned Michael Moorer when Spinks would be like 32, and Virgil Hill or Thomas/Iran Barkley when he’d be like 34, then retires before Henry Maske wins the title, if he doesn’t, he’d be 37 or something when Maske did win the title, by that point it becomes a case where he could age overnight at any point.