Michael Spinks: An under-appreciated ATG

To kick off:

If Spinks had even lasted a few rounds against Tyson then many if not most people today might have him as the No1 light heavyweight of all time.

That one loss does tarnish his legacy and in a misleading way.

 

I rank him only behind Charles all time at LHW. His ackward style presented his oppontants all kinds of problems, and he had good power as well. Was a very well rounded fighter with no weaknesses and came to fight.

His win over The Camden Buzzsaw Qawi is very impressive, who later went up in weight and gave Holyfield an absolute war. Eddie Davis was also a great fighter that The Jinx beat. Marvin Johnson was a good fighter, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad was a very good fighter, Sears was unbeaten and giving Spinks a good fight before he was stopped early. Macdonald and Rivadenyra were unbeaten world title challengers who Spinks knocked out.

The fact that Spinks was unbeaten in this era as well adds to his legacy. Sure, he was stopped by Tyson, but it was Tyson's best fight and Spinks was simply too small and not an ATG HW.

 

His wins over Holmes are great due to the fact he was the first to move up and win the HW crown. But Holmes was pretty clearly faded here, he had already been pushed to the absolute limit by Carl "The Truth" Williams and had been out of his prime for a few years. Holmes was still a good fighter but not a great one.

I thought Spinks deserved to win the first fight, but the 2nd should of gone Holmes way.

 

LHW rankings

1. Ezzard Charles
2. Archie Moore
3. Gene Tunney
4. Michael Spinks
5. Bob Foster

As much as I disliked his awkward style, he was undeniably effective, with great power in his right hand(The Jinx) and great timing. Very good jab as well, just a difficult fighter to figure out. Arguably #3 on that list.

He holds wins over pretty much every top LHW of a great era for the division, aside from Saad Muhammad(who was past his best by the time Spinks really caught his stride), which I'd have picked Spinks to win in a barn-burner. Both had great power and good boxing skills, whereas Spinks was just the more unorthodox performer and would've timed Matt with one of his patented Jinx punches to set off a mid to late rounds stoppage over 15.

Galindez was another that was done by the time Spinks was taking over. All would've been great fights.

 

Your list insults many great light heavyweights.

 

Tough.

 

My list is 5 fighters long, so obviously I'm going to leave many out, in this case the likes of Loughran, Langford(who I have difficulty placing at one weight), Johnson, etc.

 

There isn't a loss more devastating in boxing history than Spink's to Tyson.

Amazing what a single "blemish" on your record can do.