How would Mike spinks have done against Ali of the Leon fight s?

Well, truthfully, Ali was about 10 seconds away from stopping Shavers in the last round of their title fight a few months earlier. So he still had the ability to do it. Just ran out of time.

And Ali hit Leon Spinks really hard and flush in that first fight, particularly in the final rounds. Ali always closed strong.

I don't know if Michael Spinks could've taken those flush combinations in his first heavyweight fight.

Michael Spinks was never as physically strong as Leon. Leon was nowhere near as good a technician as Michael was. But Leon was definitely stronger.

And I thought Holmes won the rematch with Michael Spinks fairly convincingly because he was stronger than Michael. Holmes had his opportunity to stop Michael in that rematch after hurting him, but he just didn't go for it.

 

Michael beats Muhammad by decision at this stage of their careers.

 

I think spinks was worse second time round. Ali looked weak as anything punch wise...If spinks had come in as dedicated as the first fight Ali fails to become 3 time champ. Read that spinks was getting wrecked(high) 2 weeks before the fight and his trainer used to sleep outside his room so Spinks went out the window the loon !

 

Leon that fought Ali had 7 fights. The Micheal that fought Holmes was a
seasoned pro. And the Holmes that fought Michael was still way better
than Ali of 78. Spinks does what Holmes did to Ali in 1980.
Michael stops Ali in 10 by tko.

 

Can anyone tell me how they could justify Ali defending the title against someone who had only 7 fights? I know he won a Light heavyweight gold medal 2 years earlier at the Olympics but still ...

It's just that we get some people getting all upset about the periods from around the 80s onwards when you get split titles and saying that fighters who won them are not real champions, paper title holders, worthless alphabet champions, etc and yet here we get Ali defending the undisputed world heavyweight championship, the sacred linear title that could be traced back almost 100 years against a novice with only 7 fights ??

 

A bit iffy certainly but Leon was still more qualified than Pete Rademacher was going into a title fight with Floyd Patterson. It was Pete's FIRST professional fight.

 

Going by the Hauser book, Ali's rationale was that he'd fought and beaten three guys who'd won gold medals at the Olympics (Patterson, Frazier and Foreman), and Leon was the most recent medalist (granted it was at LHW, but Stevenson won the gold in '76 and wasn't a factor) ... of course, he and his team were actually looking at Leon being an easy opponent after his struggle with Scott Ledoux. Didn't quite pan out that way - sometimes when you push your luck, your luck pushes back.

 

Not necessarily imo.Leon beat Ali with pressure forcing him to fight at a pace that did not suit his aging frame.Michael didn't fight like that he was ,as you say herky jerky ,but more leisurely in his attacks.He may well have allowed Ali the time to regroup between forays.

 

Interesting and solid point. Ali is generally underestimated for his ring smarts, and as a ring technician...He knew how to manage a fight. His career underlines that as a 3x time champ...you can't do that unless you know your way around the ring. Good point.