Michael Spinks vs prime Holmes

Holmes in a wide Ud or possibly late stoppage.

 

Holmes will always have trouble with Spinks. However a prime Holmes will land the right hand more often and not give up on the punch. Holmes close decision in a hard fight

 

Holmes stops him anywhere after 10

 

Yea, that's a no from me.

 

Nah, the prime no. The second yes.
He lost the first match against Spinks cause:
1) after Shavers the yield of some boxers decreased, Holmes' one too.
2) the "Marciano's curse of the 49 wins"
3) an alleged injury to the arm before the match

In the 1st match Spinks was very lucky...he had never fought a match in the HWs before then, he spinned around the ring ang clinched for all the match alternating his famous outbursts. In the second match the result was controversial.

 

Larry is one of the better heavyweight champions. It is logical to assume he beats Spinks at his best because he almost beat him anyway.

However, Spinks legitimately beat Larry when nobody else could. Everyone says Larry was declining but Larry was still stopping elite fighters like Bey (who just beat Page) and Bonecrusher Smith. On paper those wins are as good as anything he did as Champion. He might not look as good doing it but on paper, he was getting the job done all the same.

Nobody else was stopping up and coming contenders apart from Larry. Thomas wasn’t. He was defending against Larrys re-treads Weaver and Berbick. And he even lost to berbick! Page was losing to Witherspoon (another Larry re-tread) and Witherspoon was losing to Bonecrusher (another Larry re-thread). So these guys were just contenders wearing belts.

The kind of fighter Spinks was against Holmes is the kind of fighter good enough to beat most of the better contenders Larry had been defending against if not all of them. The difficulty is recognising if anyone but Holmes could really win that many fights at that level consecutively. Because none of the alphabetical claimants/contender types were able to string two wins together at that level.

Spinks gets a bad wrap for being knocked out by Tyson, but aside from the fact Tyson was at his absolute best, spinks had been sitting on the sidelines a long time before this and nobody knows if he ever really wanted that many fights as a heavyweight.

I think Spinks proved he was good enough to always pose Larry problems. Just look at the guys that troubled Holmes.

The one edge Larry had was his longevity. The guy was as reliable as a Volvo.

 

It was controversial because they gave the decision to the wrong man. Holmes won if memory serves me correct by adleast 6 rds.

 

Prime Holmes stops him inside 10

 

It definitely wasn’t 6 rounds. Spinks actually outlanded Holmes if you look at the final punch stat numbers. I know you don’t judge a fight by the punch stat but I’m just stating facts. I feel like over time people forget this was a close fight. The fight that wasn’t close was the first fight which Spinks clearly won. Holmes started off sensational in the 2nd fight, he easily won the first 4 rounds. I gave Spinks the 5th and 6th. Holmes the 7th, Spinks the 8th, Holmes the 9th. Spinks took the 10th and 11th. I scored the 12th even. Spinks took the 13th. The 14th is tricky Spinks dominated the round but got hurt badly with a right hand toward the end, but was already back firing combinations before the bell rang to end the 14th. Spinks won the 15th round. I scored the 14th even. My score was 144-143 Spinks. Flip either of my even rounds to Holmes and he wins.

I agree with the poster who said Spinks would probably always trouble Holmes, style wise he’s a bit of a nightmare unless you could bulldoze him like only Prime Tyson did. Holmes was never the bulldozer that prime Tyson was. But Holmes is a legit ATG HW and in his Prime I’d say he may possibly stop Spinks late if he gets to pumping in enough of those right crosses the referee may have to rescue Michael Spinks. Spinks was a marvel of conditioning though, and insanely awkward, very hard to pin down so it’s quite possible he makes it the full 15, either way I think he loses to Prime Holmes.

 

It's common knowledge i don't rate Holmes quite as high as the mainstream but i am going to put it right out there that Spinks doesn't always give Holmes problems.

Holmes was well and truly declined by the time they fought and had lost some speed, snap, stamina, timing and all the other things they lose when jaded. Even so when he came into the rematch in top shape (for that career stage) plenty thought he won a relatively close one.

Even tho Holmes was faded Spinks still had to sit back for three rounds until the edge went off Holmes anger and offense. He was still somewhat wary until the eighth round when he came on hard as Holmes tired. Spinks won the vast majority of rounds 8-13 before Holmes hurt him in the 14th after Spinks was winning the round till that point. Holmes didn't have much left in the tank however.

At his peak i just can't see Holmes tiring enough for Spinks to take control at almost any point. With more snap and speed in his jab and a lot more in the tank Holmes would control the fight quite comfortably. He hurt Spinks several times with right hands and at his peak would be more dangerous both in landing these and also following them up. Spinks ambushes would be less effective because Holmes would be much faster and sharper with much more energy. He could simply sit back jabbing with the odd cross for good measure and wait for Spinks to come to him. There would be much more pressure on Spinks.

I see an easy decision win or stoppage as Holmes follows up Spinks being hurt with much more vigor than he could muster in 86. Spinks might still be hard to put away given his brilliant defense and great instincts.

I just cannot see a way in for Spinks with a young Holmes. Spinks can't hurt him at all and Holmes will fatigue so much less.

Holmes was extremely vulnerable to a slippery speedy boxer type by the time he fought Spinks.

 

50/50. Spinks before his knee problems would always give Holmes a tough fight. Spinks had a great jab, great mobility, and was just as clever as Holmes was. Spinks gets a bad reputation for his Tyson showing, but to be fair Spinks by 1988 was 10 lbs overweight, inactive, and had two shot knees.

 

The main issue why Holmes lost to Spinks in fight one was he came into the bout unfocused believing Spinks would crumble as did his brother. Instead Spinks outboxed Holmes for a clear win.

Fight two Holmes got himself into great shape and he was focused. What happened? Age. Holmes came out like gangbusters looking for an early KO and he won rounds but scored no KO. Then he gassed right around round 8 and lost the majority of the remaining rounds making it closer than it should have been. Generally close bouts go to the champion.

Prime focused Holmes would not gas. Instead he would surge to score a late round stoppage. Competitive the first five rounds but Spinks is caught in round 11 and stopped.

 

Holmes already beat him the rematch clearly,So prime Holmes by UD

 

To me the first Spinks fight could have gone either way. The 2nd Spinks fights was a clear Holmes win.