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

I was/am a huge Michael Spinks fan.

The loss to Tyson shouldn't hurt his legacy. He was an all-time great light heavyweight champion. He knocked Holmes off the thrown. He became the first light heavyweight champ to win the heavyweight title - and many had tried before - and you could argue against lesser heavyweights than Holmes. Spinks also beat Gerry Cooney, the most dangerous puncher in the heavyweight division in the 1980s (not named Tyson), in a heavyweight title defense.

Despite that, I don't think there's any question that the loss to Tyson did hurt his legacy.

It shouldn't have, but it clearly did.

They even interviewed all-time trainers at the time, like Ray Arcel, who said he loved Michael Spinks and followed his whole career, and he was shocked how Spinks froze that night. Arcel said he'd seen it before in other fighters, like Lou Nova and others who fought Joe Louis, and he just didn't think Spinks would freeze like he did and just become overwhelmed by the whole thing.

Guys like Eddie Futch and Ray Arcel were surprised and disappointed in Spinks's performance, as I think most who watched it live (like me), did.

It was like "Oh ... that's it?"

You can look back now and say well, of course, he was going to lose. And he only lost his last fight. And most were picking Tyson anyway. And look what he accomplished before that.

But it is obvious that if he had retired at 31-0 as the lineal world heavyweight champion ... and never fought again ...Spinks would be held in MUCH higher regard today.

Being knocked out in 91 seconds in your last fight would hurt anyone's legacy.

 

I agree with you. I shouldn’t affect his legacy but the perception of him is clearly affected.

He’s an all-time and IMO arguably top 5 at 175 and top 50 p4p in history.

 

None,, he did look like Marie Attoinette headed to the guillotine though.

 

Except James Scott, Matthew Saad Muhammad, John Conteh, and Victor Galindez, but he would have beaten them anyways. The loss doesn't hurt his legacy, but at the time, it hurt me lol.

 

Yes I think that it hurt it.

Remember that quite a few people thought that he could beat Tyson, and most who picked Tyson expected a competitive fight.

He wen't from there being no obvious formula for beating him, to looking very beatable.

He would look better today if he had retired after the Cooney fight, or even if he had lost the title to somebody like Tony Tucker, in a more competitive fight.

I don't think that additional wins after the Tyson fight would have helped him much, unless he came out with something blinding, which I don't think very likely at that stage.

 

It should not affect his legacy. He was one of the best ever, and the Holmes fights were proof of that. But the way he lost so easily to Mike Tyson affected his legacy in a big way even though it shouldn't have. It sort of erased the Holmes wins and his career at heavyweight sort of disappeared. But he was one of the best lightheavyweights of history. Had he retired after he beat Holmes, it would have helped his whole legacy.

 

Thing is, if he never fought Tyson, that'd also harm his legacy, as it'd be obvious he was scared and avoiding the fight.

 

Ironically sometimes i can feel this Spinks loss hurts Tyson's legacy more.

 

The most well known image of Spinks is of him on his back. It hurts his image more than he deserves.

The belief that he was scared out of his wits also hurts his image. I thought he was trying to get in the fight but got taken out before earning respect or getting a rhythm.

Sidenote: I don't think his knees had any impact at all on his performance.

 

Yes because a lot of people just remember him by that fight. But other than that he has a virtually perfect record. In his defense, though, I can see many ATG light heavyweight champions and many top heavyweight contenders of yesteryear being blown out on June 27 1988 by a young Mike Tyson.

Now, if Spinks had fought say, Evander Holyfield or even Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali, he likely would have lost those fights and against Louis, eventually have been counted out, but he likely would have been much more competitive than he was against Tyson.

And then he would have been thought of as more of a legitimate heavyweight and maybe an even greater light heavyweight.

 

Yup. He got hurt by a bodyshot and then knocked clean out when he tried to earn Tyson's respect by throwing the right hand but Tyson deflected and countered.


The same people that say "if you fight back Tyson folds" etc are the ones who ignore the fights where someone did fight back but just got knocked out.

People get knocked out, it happens. Especially against a guy with speed power and agression.


Spinks legacy was at LHW, everything else is just extra brownie points anyway

 

Spinks was a great lightheavyweight but not as great a heavyweight as other LH greats moving up, still a excellent fighter overall. Holmes also recieved a reality check when he fought Tyson. Evander did not fight that Tyson but he prevailed over Tyson & smoked out Buster, Evander had his highs & lows but had a few Big highs against top opposition Spinks and Holmes did not