How much does Michael Sphinx's only loss hurt his legacy?

The legacy of Michael "Sphinx" was not harmed at all in Egypt, where they built a large statue of him at Giza.

 

Classic lol! But Spinx, or Spinks was never seen as a great heavy, his greatness was at Lt.Heavy where he is top 3-4 at that weight class. His awkwardness and Holmes being well past prime was seen as a major upset, but anyone who knew anything about the fight game during that era knew Tyson would destroy Spinks, but most thought it would last longer than one rd. So no, it doesn't effect his greatness at Lt.heavy in my opnion. He was not close to great at Heavyweight.

 

Spinks got a $14 million payday, so if anything it was great for his legacy Also, Spinks going into the Tyson fight was a broken fighter with two shot knees, but he had the leverage of having two wins over Holmes, so the only option that made sense was cashing out against Tyson. Trying to have comeback fights with his knees and legs as destroyed as they were would've just resulted in Spinks losing to a fringe contender instead of Tyson.

I look at the Spinks-Tyson fight like the Martinez-Cotto fight, which is a broken down legend showing up and earning a well deserved final payday.

 

In one sense, a lot, since retiring an undefeated LHW and heavyweight champ would have been legendary.

Realistically, being crushed by the human wrecking ball that was Mike Tyson ages 19-23 is no shame, and most already felt that he lost to Holmes in the second fight.

Like most fighters, he threw the dice one to many times. But make no mistake about it, Spinks was a great, great fighter.

Holmes, Qawi, Cooney, Mustafa Muhammed, Marvin Johnson...that is no joke right there.

 

Is that you, Ears my lad?

 

It shouldn't hurt his legacy at all really .Brilliant Light heavy ,then the first to step up and win the big crown .Defended it a couple of times .Then lost to one of the most devastating Heavyweight champs in his most destructive mode's .

 

This "Sphinx" thing is a bad joke.

 

Hmm... I think you don't know Marlon Starling's and Bert Sugar's opinion.

 

This is about it. No-one would ever go thru ATG light heavyweights like Tyson imo. No-one. He'd smash them all.

 

Top three all time LH that you could make a case for best LH ever. Fought everyone at LH in a very stacked era. No shame in getting blitzed by a prime Tyson.

 

I can never give him much credit for the way he lay down and took the money ( and lots of it) v Tyson.
Far less talented fighters ( Bonecrusher , Biggs, Bruno, Thomas) etc, at least found a way of making it last or giving it a go.
His second win over Holmes was a joke and the first was borderline . Maybe Holmes deserved it for trying to cherry pick his way to Marciano's record , but I don't have much time for Spinks as a Heavyweight.

 

What was their opinion?

 

Despite his LHW career being intact It definitely impacted his legacy or rather the perception of it. Keep in mind this a fighter who has never lost, nor has he ever been knocked down in a professional fight and the perception of his durability has been impacted tremendously since the Tyson fight.

Although the loss to Tyson is certainly forgivable, I can't help but think that it would helped his career tremendously to score a big win post Tyson and retire.

 

I don’t think it hurts it a great deal? I guess if he retired after the 2 Holmes fights he could get a historical Tunney perspective in the HW’s. So in that regard maybe he does slip a little bit.