How would Spinks have done against the following ? Muhammad Ali 1974 Joe Frazier 1971 George Foreman 1974 Ken Norton 1976 Larry Holmes 1979 Earnie Shavers 1977 Ron Lyle 1976 Joe Bugner 1975 Jerry Quarry 1972 I'm pretty damn sure he'd have lost to the first five on my list but how would Spinks have done against the rest ?
I think he would have done well to be honest. No he does not beat the top tier, but his fighting heart, awkward style, good conditioning and size range would have blended in well in the 70's. He likely beats most of the top 10 at any given time during the decade while losing to the big names that you mentioned. An aging Ali might have had problems with him however and I'm not sold on Ken Norton one way or the other.
Oversimplification and also irrelevant. Spinks chose to retire after collecting a check that was about five times the size of anything that he would have gotten in the 70's, and what's more there weren't too many prime Tyson's walking around in that era either. Beating an aged Holmes was at least as good as beating young versions of Bugner, Quarry, Ellis, Lyle, shavers, or a diminished Ali. I wouldn't go as far as to say that Spinks would be "the champ" or stand much of a chance against Foreman or Frazier, but saying that he goes "nowhere" on the basis that he lost to Tyson then retired doesn't begin to tell the truth of the matter.
Spinks wouldn't have ventured into that group of heavyweights for one thing. And if he did he would've hightailed it back to light heavy in the blink of an eye after getting his head handed to him. His move to heavyweight was a calculated one against a champion who was clearly faded and was ripe for the taking, much like Roy Jones' challenge of John Ruiz' was. Low risk high reward. What do you think would've happened to Spinks had he taken on the Holmes that crushed Frazier or brother Leon? or came off the deck to stop Shavers? Now throw him in with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Lyle etc and you could read the results of those fights in the obituary page of the Sunday paper.
Eddie Gregory was superior to M. Spinks. OK, attack me, but he was! Eddie's head demons did him in, not the Jinx.
He barely beat 1985 Holmes, so that eliminates Norton and Holmes as his victims. I don't think he'd beat 1971 Frazier or 1974 Ali. He could outpoint 1979 Shavers and 1976 Lyle but they'd have puncher's chances of catching him. I think 1974 Foreman wins if he trains right. I think 1972 Quarry v. Spinks would be a toss up. Spinks would outpoint Bugner. Bugner is the only one on this list I am fairly certain Spinks would beat. Let's face it barely beating an Old Holmes and arguably losing the rematch, a Ko of an nevrer was like Tagstaadt and a win over an inactive past his prime ****ey isn't the strongest heavyweight resume.
