We all know the history of how Spinks ascended to the heavyweight division in 1985 to beat Larry Holmes. What if however, he had chosen to continue defending his crown at lightheavyweight for as long as it lasted? In 1985, Spinks was 28 years old and had 10 title defenses under his belt. He was already regarded by many as an all time great lightheavyweight. Spinks had pretty much cleaned out the division of its best talent, and nor would new faces begin to emerge, until the likes of Don Lalonde, Bobby Cyz, Virgil Hill, Charles Williams, Dennis Andries, Jeff harding and Michael Moorer. My guess is that he could have still gotten some fairly lucrative paydays, by campaigning for fights with Thomas Hearns and perhaps even Marvin Hagler. Evander Holyfield may also have been a possibility a bit later. He also might have held onto the crown for another 4 or 5 years, and picked up an additional 10-12 defenses, before either losing or retiring around 1990. By this time, the division was starting to pick up again, and Spinks would have been around 34 years old.
I think he would have had trouble making the weight to be honest. He was going up one way or another.
Could very well be the case, although Archie Moore managed to stay within the necessary weight perameters until a later age. Therefore, I don't think that it was impossible for Spinks to do it either.
Spinks would have made the weight for as long as he wanted to, trust me He would have remained unbeaten for a long time unless complacency set in.
Holmes would have retired 50-0. Mercer would have beaten Holyfield, then lost to Bruno. Bruno would have had 30 title defenses and retired as the greatest of all time. Damn you, Spinks!
Spinks weighed 170 when he thrashed david sears and jim mcdonnel. He would have probably made another 5-10 title defences and cement his legacy as the best light heavyweoght of all times.
Mike Spinks probably would have shattered Joe Louis's all time records for most title defenses and longest championship reign, especially if he came to employ the services of Mackie Shilstone for help in retaining the LHW Title, as he actually did for his challenge of Holmes. As brownpimp88 correctly pointed out, Mike weighed only 170 pounds for his penultimate defense in that weight class against Sears. In addition to helping Mike increase lean muscle mass, Shilstone's regimen enabled him to lose an incredible amount of body fat. (I'd have to look it up to be sure, but I believe Mike lost well over 20 pounds of body fat in preparing for Holmes.) A naturally slim guy, he has not exactly inflated into a bloated balloon since retirement. If Mike had chosen not to move up against Larry, and hired on Shilstone anyways, then tried to last as absolutely long as he could, he would have probably retired as the oldest world champion in boxing history. His desire would have been the only limit facing him in that division, especially with the support of Futch, Shilstone and Butch Lewis. Holmes would have broken Marciano's record and retired, but eventually, Mike would have shattered Larry's new record in remaining at LHW. RJJ stepped up to LHW against McCallum in November, 1996, over 11 years after Jinx's final LHW match against MacDonald. That's the earliest I could envision anybody possibly decisioning a committed Spinks, and with what we now know about Roy's chin, even projecting that outcome in favor of RJJ would be charitable guesswork. By the end of 1996, Mike was still only 40 years old, an age beyond which Hopkins has remained excellent. Yes, a dedicated and focused Mike Spinks was absolutely intelligent enough, disciplined enough, and great enough to maintain an iron clad grip on the LHW Championship into the new millenium. The nature of his outcome against a peak Tyson has made fans completely forget how truly great he was at LHW, a weight at which Mike was as close to invincible as any champion who has ever lived. I believe he is the greatest light heavyweight of all time. His performance against Holmes was the boxing equivalent of Roger Bannister's breaking of the four minute mile. It forever shattered the psychological notion that a reigning light heavyweight champion would never be able to climb that final step to the top of the mountain, opening the floodgates for the Holyfields, Moorers, Toneys and RJJ's who followed through the path finally blazed by Mike Spinks. Where O'Brien, Carpentier, Loughran, Conn, Maxim, Moore and Foster had all failed, he alone became the first to turn the tide of history, and he deserves to be remembered as Bannister will always be.
I think he was ready to retire soon enough. He was bored with the 175 pound rank and moved up for excitement. Holmes was considered almost career suicide and he beat him. I thought Holmes was going to stop him in one or two rounds. Had Mike not been at heavyweight maybe it would have been different. Also Spinks could have stayed at light heavyweight and fought Hearns who was moving up soon. Regardless of who thinks Hearns could win that, it would be an intriguing fight in the buildup. Hearns and Spinks were from a similar era.
Fighting faster smaller guys isn't necessarily easier, especially as Spinks legs seemed to be going. Spinks got Holmes at the best time possible, Holmes legs were gone and he wasn't the same, just look at him against Carl Williams the fight before, I thought he lost that fight Still at his best you'd expect him to stop Hearns sooner or later and keep Hagler at bay, for sure. And he should beat Hill too, but boxers can't stay at their best forever
That's pretty accurate,imo. I always thought it was a shame that Michael never stopped off at Cruiserweight. A classic fight with Evander Holyfield would have taken place.
