"Jimmy Ellis of '68 vs. Michael Spinks of '87." Who the better man at 200 pounds?

Maybe , but after watching Spinks fight and one or two fights by Ellis (in which he lost) I believe Ellis would have beaten Spinks . Ellis fought better than Holmes , he simply had neither one of Holmes' size advantage and poor weak opposition.
Spinks was no Frazier , Ali nor even Shavers (whom was thumbed by Holmes in his poor stoppage loss to him) .
Ellis was clearly a better fighter than Holmes (in the P4P sense)
But an inferior Heavyweight (in the H2H sense) .

 

Ellis for me .I never thought much of Spinks at heavyweight.

 

Jinx Spinks by close decision.

I like his cagey, awkward boxing & still blisteringly fast combination-punching at Heavyweight.

 

I'm leaning towards Spinks as well. The man had savvy, and as you say, was awkward. My guess it that this results in a very close and probably ugly decision.

 

Wonder how Spinks would of got on in 1968 at heavyweight.

 

Spinks.

 

I'm afraid tht cooper as a much harder hitter then both of the men wud stop,
Ellis and Spinks.
Ellis wud win 1 decision in spinks.

 

How about Henry Cooper vs. Mike Tyson? :think

 

Cooper wud have,
his "moments." Tyson, a savage hitter, wud cut Henry up,
Cooper, I'm afraid wud lose inthe end,
Tyson, more proven, stronger, but if Cooper make it past "5" rnd's,
Cooper might have 1 shot w/ the hayemaker hook.

 

ellis by ud, he was better fighter than spinks.and he had much more experience at 190-200 pounds

 

jerry quarry was a very fast counter puncher, a very solid AND NATURAL 200 pounder, probably he would own spinks any day of the week, by tko or ud. floyd patterson would play with spinks, bonavena was too strong for him, spinks might beat martin.