Jack Dempsey vs. Michael Spinks-Both At Their Best-Who Wins?

Dempsey KO

 

Likely Spinks? Very hard to choose.

 

Dempsey

 

Spinks walks straight through him, boxing and technique, set ups and much more evolve with time.

 

He didn’t have the guts to fight Tyson & he wouldn’t have the guts for Dempsey, either.

 

He had enough guts to get into the ring in a knee brace.

 

Dempsey

 

He showed up for his money. Nothing else. It was a disgraceful thing, & I can’t ever give him the benefit of the doubt against guys like Dempsey, Liston or Foreman, based on his reaction to Tyson.

 

He was past his prime and in a knee brace, he also can't just give up the lineal title. If he retired with it- He would've been criticized for ending a lineage that went all the way back to Patterson, but instead it's that he just showed up for the money.

 

Well, let’s not make this all about the Tyson fight (my fault for focusing on it). If anyone here thinks Spinks won’t be spooked by Dempsey, have at it. Personally I think he failed his biggest career gut check & that weighs heavily on my thinking with an opponent Tyson was trying to emulate.

Spinks has the skill set to trouble Dempsey, but not the stomach.

 

I’ll dissect it then, Dempsey’s attacks and rhythm would be predictable to a more modern fighter like Spinks, lunging in with not much of a set up, it worked for his time because most didn’t have the feet, size or timing, Spinks would time Dempsey’s predictable footwork and would constantly walk him onto jabs, Dempsey would swing out of frustration, but Spinks would see it coming from a mile off, as did Tunney, but Spinks would have even more time to get away with his height and would eventually adjust and time/counter Dempsey with something to put him in his box, and would pick him apart from there and stop him, all this and I haven’t actually mentioned that Spinks was the bigger man when he moved up to heavyweight, Spinks would fight on the backfoot for the most part, but he wouldn’t get bullied to the ropes, because if he tried, Spinks would easily clinch him and push him off.

 

It's all good. I just personally think that a prime Spinks (Afro or not) won't be afraid to tussle with the Mauler in his own odd way. Still hard fought, still could go either way, but I'd put my own money on the Jinx.

 

I think Jack deserves more credit than that. I don't think Dempsey is some technical master that destroys every heavyweight that proceeded him but there was more to his arsenal than lunging in without much of a setup. There was a lot more to Jack's game than that, a lot more movement and feinting involved to set up his punches which I wouldn't really call lunges a lot of the time, they're speedy and short hooks and Jack also makes sure to frequently defend himself to make up for when he throws hooks from long range.

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