Let's say both men freeze out Mike Tyson and decide to dance with each other again for the lineal crown. Larry has more time to prepare, maybe even take a warm up fight before in January. Who wins it at that point? Can Spink's shot knees handle 15 rounds of him trying to outbox Holmes again?
When Holmes did actually comeback again after his loss to Tyson. He needed another 5 fights and two 10 rounders to get ready to face Mercer. Only 1 comeback fight after a lay off may be too soon to fight an opponent on the level of Spinks. It's hard to tell quite honestly IMO. Spinks would have less mobility and I think @JohnThomas1 has said a few times he wasn't sold on Spinks's durability as a Heavyweight. So maybe Holmes could get to him a bit more and possibly stop Spinks this time ? But Holmes would also be a bit slower and I still think stylistically Spinks would be a tough problem to solve for Holmes. The question is would Spinks have the legs at this stage in his career to befuddle and frustrate Holmes for all 12 or 15 rounds. And would Holmes be ready with only 1 comeback fight ? I'm not entirely sure how it would go.
I like Larry in this. Big. Decision bout. We could guage the Holmes deterioration. Harder to do w/ Spinks--but it was there especially in the mobility department. W/O the mobility edge, he loses the bout. And Larry would bring his A game to get some sort of revenge. Don't see Spinks bringing anything but his B game. And if I'm right about that....his B game is not getting the W over Larry Holmes.