Michael Spinks vs Michael Moorer @ lightheavy

I would go with Spinks. He faced and proved himself against much tougher opposition. Moorer was a big puncher though, he's a bit like Foster in the sense that he scored tons of knockouts but against mediocre opposition. Needless to say, Spinks was a big puncher as well.

I think we'd learn more about Moorer than about Spinks in this fight. We know Spinks can box, can fight and can dig out the win if necessary. I think Moorer fights stupid sometimes, although that is based on his work at heavyweight. He didn't always listen to what Steward told him to do and it nearly costs him against Cooper, twice.

 

Although I'd pick Spinks, a key issue here is how well he'd do against a pure natural south paw like Moorer, who possesed far more power than the average lightheavyweight and was a fast starter ( something that Spinks wasn't ). Spinks of course, defeated far better fighters in his tenure as lightheavyweight champion, while Moorer's best win was likely against Leslie Stewart-a fight in which he was virtually outboxed before stopping Stewart around the 8th. Neither man occupied the division for a terribly long period of time either. Spinks vacated the division with around 27 fights, and Moorer left with about 22. Moorer moved up leaving many good challengers behind, while Spinks had cleared out the whole picture though. Both guys lost to big punchers at the higher weight class, and both also won the heavyweight title in marginal fashion from declining champions.

I guess the key here, is that Spinks proved himself in 12 and 15 round fights against world class opposition, whereas Moorer never went beyond 9 at lightheavyweight, and against competition that ranged from average to good. I would not make this an automatic win for Spinks though. In order for his savy, experience and great skill to prevail, he'd have to survive the early onsloughts of a very aggressive and dangerous southpaw in Moorer. This would not be as easy as some would think. As mentioned earlier, Spinks was not a particularly fast starter, while Moorer was absolutely treacherous in the first 5 or 6 rounds. Even if Spinks did beat Moorer, I wouldn't be surprised if he was floored once or twice along the way. We also have to consider that the only man who ever floored him, managed to finish him off. Moorer, on the other hand was floored several times later at heavyweight, but managed to come back and win on occasion.

For the moment, I'd pick Spinks by a decision or possibly a late stoppage, but I'm not sure that I'd bet any significant amount of money on it. This would be a very dangerous fight for him, and one that he could certainly lose if his wits weren't about him.

 

I'd normally give Moorer a punchers chance but upon close inspection i can barely give that.

Spinks and Eddie Futch are one of the more formidable tactical combinations in boxing history.

Futch's seemingly unfathomable shelving (mostly) of Spinks greatest asset, his right hand vs Qawi was brilliant. One of Qawi's greatest strengths was his right hand counter to right hands (rolling then coming back) and the tactic worked a treat, not least because Spinks was so multi faceted and adaptable in his own right.

Spinks showed his ability to fight cunning, dfensive and patient vs both Qawi and Holmes and would definitely be doing the same vs the massive punching Moorer. As hard as Moorer hits he doesn't surpass Spinks who also has more power punching variety. Spinks at 175 has the much better chin too.

Spinks/Futch will come out cautiously but not lazy and slow starting as was his trademark. He will box from long range, using his vastly underrated jab and herky jerky defence to keep him safe and even if not ahead. He will evaluate Moorer and await his opportunities. At some point he will nail Moorer, hurting him, but caution and great respect for Moorers power may prolong the execution. Sometime in the latter middle rounds i see Spinks hurting Moorer and stepping in to finish the job. If he cannot finish it's Spinks by UD.

Moorer is outclassed here.

 

On a sidenote ( though not pertaining directly to the thread topic ), I would have liked to have seen Moorer fight a few of the other hot commodities before ascending to the higher weight class. From 1990-1993, the lightheavyweight division had some very good fighters. Virgil Hill and Moorer might have made an interesting matchup. To a lesser extent, Jeff Harding and Prince Charles Williams were decent fighters as well. Harding had exceptional heart and toughness along with a fair amount of power to compliment it. Harding vs Moorer could have made a nice a little slugfest for about 3-5 rounds. Prince Charles was a rather tricky fighter to overcome also. About that time, Thomas Hearns had once again joined the lightheavyweight picture, and men like Bobby Cyz ( spelling ), was still very competitive too. We probably never would have seen a Moorer vs Hearns fight, due to the fact that they were both still under the Kronk umbrella at the time, but the other matches would have had me raising my eyebrows.

 

You and me both.

 

The problem here is that Moorer didn't really build much of a career at 175 (only 22 fights, all KO wins). It would have been interesting to have seen him fight some unification fights, with Virgil Hill for example, and i do believe that there were attempts at the time to make those fights, but unfortunately they didn't happen. Thus, we don't really know how good Moorer might have been at lightheavy. Spinks was good though. 27-0, 19 KO's at the weight, and he fought some legit fighters there. Off of that, i'd give him the edge. Also, Moorer was a huge puncher at 175, but outside of the Tyson fight, Spinks was never knocked down. NO light heavy would have stood up to that version of Tyson.

 

Both hit hard, very hard. Spinks probably had better chin, and was more consistant in a fight. Moorer moved up faster to heavyweight than Spinks did, if he had stayed Lightheavy it would be easier to say. I'll say Spinks, but it is close.

 

I've seen quite a bit of Spinks at LH from different times in his career and he always looked a bit on the easy side to hit.

If Moorer gets a fire lit under his ass that might be bad for Spinks.