Michael Spinks vs Riddick Bowe

Ferguson was one shotted by Bowe. Jesse had never been sopped before in his career , even when getting hit clean by punchers like Tyson , Douglas and McCall.
Bowe slept him with a single hook in under two rounds.

When taking about Bowe at his best , its not the version that fought Tubbs. You wouldn't take the Lewis that fought Levi Bilups in a fantasy match-ups vs Spinks , so the Tubbs version of Bowe is kinda irrelevant. Plus Tubbs was bigger and had a larger reach than Mike Sprinks.

Bowe had a longer reach than both. He holds a 5 inch reach advantage over Spinks.

Spinks can play the awkward movement game , but he still has to get within punching range to score points and wins rounds. The trouble with that strategy is Bowe was dangerous in his fearsome ability to trade with his opponent.
Spinks simply isn't getting in or out without getting leathered with something. If he goes on the survival trial, he has a stiff jab & long hard hitting right hand coming after him.
Bowe caught a fleeing Hide enough times to drop him 6-8 times before stopping him. He'd have no trouble catching Spinks with big shots.
Imo Spinks gets stopped with 10 rounds.

 

Well, you're obviously a Spinks fan (I myself am a HUGE fan of Spinks at light-heavy). Nothing wrong with that at all, and no I'm not saying that's blinding you to any bull**** "objective" truth. I am a big fan of Bowe, so my posts are going to obviously look more biased in that regard to yours.

I disagree about Holmes and Bowe's straight and overhand rights, Larry's was far more accurate and less looping but I wouldn't call it more powerful, especially when Bowe dug way in (watch the Gonzalez fight. for just one example). The only punch of Larry's that's certainly comparable in power is the right uppercut (which was the closest thing Larry came to a one-punch ko punch, and it was indeed awesome).

One of Bowe's worse Achilles' heels was his right hand (besides the uppercut). He had a habit of getting too excited and looping the HELL out of that right hand (and he missed most of the time with it). It really only landed on folks his size or bigger (which is one of the reason I think he knocks out pre-Steward Lewis). You'll notice, whenever Bowe straightened out his right (and this ONLY happened ever when he was Futch, and even then rarely) it was pretty damn devastating.

I mean complete respect to your opinions, and I agree with quite a few things you've said in the past. You're a really good member imo.

 

Ferguson was the first name I thought of, thanks.

I still see Spinks as being a bit like Holy (just nowhere near as good as a heavy). Holy liked to dart in and out, give different faces (not as often as Michael, of course), and was overall a very smart fighter. I could be wrong.

Spinks' cute moves would only go so far with Bowe. It's just a matter of time before Bowe lands flush....just as it was for Tyson.

I had Larry losing the first fight to Spinks by 2 points, I had him winning by four points in the rematch. In the 14th round of the second fight Spinks was seriously staggered and the only reason he didn't go down was Holmes' at the time ring rustiness and (of course) age.

 

You make some good points for the Bowe side. I’m am pretty sure Carl Williams iced Ferguson though.

 

Twas a cuts stoppage!

 

I just think power sometimes gets overrated in these fantasy matchup‘s James Bonecrusher Smith was one of the heaviest punchers I’ve ever seen in boxing at Heavyweight but he was a looping winging puncher. Bonecrusher was unable to stop Marvis Frazier. A guy who old Holmes destroyed in 1 round. And dropped the first time with a strait Right.

Delivery of a punch and how good defensively the fighter on the receiving end is plays a giant factor in fights in my opinion.

And yes I am probably the only guy on this site with Michael Spinks as my avatar, so I may be a bit biased....

 

Larry was obviously a much better fighter than Riddick (though the first Holy fight I feel he was operating close to a prime Holmes' level).

At least partly due to defense: Larry wouldn't have been hit with half of what Bowe did. For some reason Bowe really didn't mind mixing it up and probably had a little too much macho ego: it really hurt him today.

Though Bowe was mostly shot by the 2nd Golota fight, he did showcase a heart on a par with someone like Larry (or Holy) and was a great fighter for more than "just" that terrific win over Holy imo. That's mostly all I wanted to say.

 

Hmmmm I could’ve sworn he folded him over with the chopping right and I remember seeing Ferguson laying on his face but you’re talking over 40 years of boxing in my brain that I watched So I may be mis-remembering. I’ll pull my tape later.

 

Michael is of course an ATG, deservedly so.

I almost forgot the one punch ko Larry pulled on Mike Weaver the second time around. Incredible shot!!!

 

Williams wasn't exactly a ko fighter. Judging by what happened after Holmes, he wasn't much of a fighter, period imo. But that's not saying much when guys like Witherspoon, Smith, and Thomas were revolving "champions". ugh.

 

Nope. I was right, he dropped him with a chopping right to the head and Ferguson got up right at 10 and the fight was stopped. I think the fight you’re thinking about where Ferguson was stopped on cuts was against Bruce Seldon.

So I guess depending on what your definition of iced is he didn’t actually ice him because he got up but he did stop him in the 10th round, not on cuts. My memory is usually pretty airtight especially with Heavyweights because I’ve been obsessed with them since the 1970s

 

Prime Larry was better than Bowe no question. The Spinks version of Larry is not better than prime Bowe in my opinion

 

This ^^

Bowe actually stated when asked who hit him the hardest, he replied "Herbie Hide" he also said that at one point he was gone, and if Hide would have hit him again he would have been out...

 

Rocky Sekorski a long time journeyman echoed the same sentiment. He took bombs from comebacking Foreman and then worked in camp sparring with Hide. He claimed Hide hit as hard as Foreman.

The main difference I see in Hide and Spinks is stamina, Hide had a bad gas tank. Spinks was a conditioning machine he could fight 15 rounds and did on many occasions with no problem, he was always the fresher fighter at the end. Well that and power. Hide obviously was a harder puncher.

 

Michael definitely had excellent stamina. Hide looked like he was winning the Bowe fight for the first couple of rounds...in fact he might have beaten him had he stuck to his game plan and not tried to be macho man.

I was pretty dismissive of Herbie Hide until I watched his fights both before and after the belt. Had he stayed at Cruiserweight he might have ended up ruling there for a long while.

Hide was an unbeaten heavyweight champion who had remarkable hand speed (which was at least partly responsible for his kayos...most of what looked like power in Hide's punches were more a product of freaky accuracy and flush landings).

Both the Hide and Gonzalez fights for me completely smash through the crap "Bowe only had one fight" dogma. Hide was unbeaten champ (with quite the record at the time) and Gonzalez was not only unbeaten but iirc the #1 contender of one of the alphabet soup boxing organizations. Those wins are not to be dismissed...he won them and showed a lot of heart against Hide (who, yeah, rocked the hell out of and at one point had Bowe out on his feet).

Had Hide not had both stamina and chin problems he more than conceivably would have beat Bowe (and given all the other heavies problems).

Bowe is one of my top ten pfp favorite fighters, so I hope folks here understand I'm a bit biased.