Michael Spinks vs Ingemar Johannson @ Heavyweight

A lot of people here are arguing that Spinks was a better fighter than Ingo overall. Yes, at lightheavyweight. Then again, Patterson would have been a nightmarishly good lightheavyweight if he'd chosen to stay there instead of going for the heavyweight championship. Ingo ran him over once and almost won the trilogy.

 

Except he was knocked cold, fairly early, twice.

 

Well, yes. The guy had a weak chin. I never claimed otherwise. The point remains that he destroyed Patterson once and almost won the third fight. Say what you like about Patterson's own chin, but he was definitely a better heavyweight than Spinks.

 

As crazy as it may sound, I'm not sure that I see Ingo being much better than Ray Mercer, minus Ray's chin. And Holmes dominated Mercer at the age of 42.

 

I know as much as any body about micheal spinks. I agree he could outpoint ingo.

After eight seasons as a profesional boxer Micheal spinks weighed 170 pounds as a fully matured athlete.He put on a furher 5 pounds for his final defence at light heavyweight then challenged Holmes for the heavyweight title.

Spinks “developed” another 24 pounds in 3 months to take on larry holmes an old champion past his best and was awarded two close wins on points over the heavyweight champion.

. I like spinks, who in my view boxed a master class against Larry Holmes to win the only way he could.

Micheal spinks outboxed one world class, much bigger heavyeight. The first time at least, he stole the fight but he did not "better" the champion in the true sense. This was still historical for light heavyweights but has been blown out of proportion somewhat when assessing micheals worth as an ATG heavyweight.

 

Spinks might well get KO's early, but Ingo was not Tyson.

If forced to pick, I'd go for Spinks by decision.

 

Spinks by a mile. Way more talented, about equal in power, far more cagey. It would take a very lucky punch for Ingo to win.

 

Spinks would win a decision.

 

Spinks used speed, overall boxing ability, conditioning and combination punching to outpoint Holmes in their first fight and fight him on close to even terms in their second fight. That Holmes was still a far better fighter than Ingo ever was ...

The weight Spinks put on for the Holmes fights was legit. He was not carved out of marble like Holyfield but he was strong and solid and on his 6'2" frame he carried it well .. to my eyes he looked much more solid at 212 than Ingo did at 204. AT the end of the day it's besides the point because Spinks was simply the much better fighter. Ingo was much too slow and one dimensional .. a much faster Qwai could not touch Michael when he boxed. A much bigger and better Holmes could not do much with him ... I see the Ingo fight going very much like Mike's Cooney bout where the "puncher" basically strikes out and gets taken out by the much better fighter ...

 

could not agree more but it was a one fight plan, a one fight deal. he cleverly devised a plan to not engage Holmes and steal the fight on points, it was a master class he followed by the letter - a real game of strategy. Spinks had studied Holmes every move - a fighter he knew well who had crucified his brother. Even so it did not work the second time around and spinks's other heavyweight fights were against a retired former prospect and an overmatched European.
Spinks may very well devise the same plan to beat another world class heavyweight the only way he could, but often the same trick wont work twice.

The weight spinks put on took 3 months, it was artificial. Don’t trust your eyes - spinks did not kid himself, he knew he was not a heavyweight that’s why he was so afraid against Tyson. Ingo was a heavyweight as an amateur. he was world class.

ingo looked one dimensional but IMO was rather harder to predict than Holmes was, there was not much room for error against Johansson.
The advantage spinks had against Holmes was he knew Holmes inside out, knew what he was going to do before he did it. Would spinks have the same advantage against ingo? As good as spinks was at LH could amount to ought if he cannot beat another world class heavyweight other than Holmes - possibly a one fight deal. Against Ingo or another HW he had not studded so closely spinks might get his block knocked off.

 

Ingo by KO,Ingo very very underated,Spinks top 10 ,but at LH!!!!

 

spinks by decision

 

He was only knocked out cold once by one of the best left hooks ever thrown. In their third fight, he got caught with a temple shot that took away his balance and he simply couldn't gather himself in time for the 10 count, much like with Jerry Quarry against George Chuvalo.

While I don't think Johansson had a strong chin, to say he had some kind of a glass jaw is a bit of an overstatement. He was not going to be knocked over by just any punch, it had to be perfectly thrown like the left hook of Patterson's.