How would it have ended up had he not decided to make the move to Heavyweight, but instead he goes on to try and dominate the 175lbs division for awhile longer. Is he dethroned by Bobby Czyz or Virgil Hill? Personally I think he was so far ahead of those guys, he'd dominate until he wanted to retire. A fight with Michael Moorer would have been interesting mind, the old guard vs the new guard. How do you see Spinks, getting older, dealing with all of these new guns at Light Heavyweight?
His last performance wasnt all that great at lightheavy, maybe he was already showing signs of fading there....quite possibly he was having trouble with the weight aswell. And of course the knee was getting worse. But he looked excellent against Holmes the first time and acquitted himself pretty well in the rematch against a better prepared Larry. I think based on that he still had enough left at that stage to deal with the contenders that were coming up at 175 in the following years. Quite often after a dominant champ like Spinks vacates the next crop of fighters look very weak in comparison. And the ones that followed him were no exception. Guys like Andries, Stewart, Hill, Kocar, Cysz would have been mashed up by Spinks. And its very likely he would have been able to reign with an iron fist for another 2-3 years. Maybe even longer. I think there is every chance after that he might drop an unexpected decision..quite possibly to one of those guys..and then avenge it. The signs would be there then for Michael to think about hanging them up and you would hope he would. He cashed out bigtime in his heavyweight foray..so there was no need to go on there. He probably would have went a bit to long at 175 because of money, or lack there of at the weight.
Dude, he beat the **** out of MacDonald. One every round, and knocked MacDonald down four times. It's worth noting that three of the last four challengers to Spinks' throne were undefeated and they were all stopped. It came a time where he had just defeated everyone worthy, and you had these padded records challenging him...when they had no chance at all. Spinks very rarely won the first round...he was an ultra slow starter, but once he got into his groove, he was a wrecking machine. I think he could have gone to dominate like you say, and then perhaps drop a decision to Hill or someone, and avenge it...then retire. I'd like to think that anyway, I don't think the man gets the respect he deserves, not even now.
Jim was a tough SOB but I thought Mike laboured to put him away at times..Not his sharpest performance....He should have dominated Old McDonald like that, that was expected of him..When Jim stepped up again he handled just as easily by Czyz. He probably wasnt struggling with the weight..that was just a throw away comment. If anything he probably was never fully mentally recovered from his gf dieing and apparent bout of depression.
It all depends on his dedication to the sport. So long as he had it, he beats everyone that came after him for years and years to come. If he puts in half-assed training efforts and his heart isn't in it, someone like Virgil Hill could outbox him. If he steps up to Cruiserweight, Holyfied beats him any time after 86.
Indeed, decently motivated Spinks would have won for a long long time. He would have noticably climbed the 175 ATG ratings in the process.
IN retrospect, after the first few years, the eighties were pretty bad for light heavies.Spinks probably reigns for a while even if only giving 70% effort jobs, as JOnes did for years against his mediocre comp. Hill and Moorer would have been nice though.
Probably would retire undefeated, with the last couple of challenges coming from maybe Moorer or Czyz.
