Michael Spinks

He was a far superior Lt. Heavyweight. Excellent, if awkward, technical boxer-puncher. The era was good but he came around when the division's best were ready to be taken. Still, he faced some very good fighters during his reign, and knocked off a few of the old dogs. Had he come along a few years earlier he may not've had quite the dominant reign that he did, as that was an extremely deep era for the division, but he'd have made his presence felt among the top tier fighters in any era, I feel.

 

this guy was a really good fighter and in my mind is very underrated:think

 

Spinks was the man, caring for Leon and his knee took away a few potential matchups, but his chances of finishing undefeated were still high.

 

Yaqui Lopez was a very good contender, but past his best.

Eddie Mustafa Muhammad was a very talented fighter, but lazy, and wasn't in the best of shape, having come down from heavyweight when he fought Spinks.

Spinks was a hell of a fighter though. ATG.

 

Marvin Johnson and particularly Yaqui Lopez are the prime examples. Excellent fighters in their primes, but shop-worn from so many ring wars by the time Spinks jinxed 'em. Gregory was the more talented fighter, in my opinion, but he lacked the drive and mental consistency of Spinks.

He never faced Saad or Conteh, but those guys were already well on the decline, if not finished as top level fighters, by the time Spinks was champion. He just seemed to come in at the cross-over point between eras. The tail end of the uber-talented 70's era and the beginning of the less so, but still good 80's.

 

Do you mean Saad?

 

Si.

 

Spinks did have a unification match with the then much feared Dwight Braxton aka Dwight Muhammad Qawi, The Camden Buzzsaw which Spinks dominated.

 

He beat Qawi as well.

 

Spinks Jinx was great.

He never lost at light heavyweight in one of the deepest divisions all time. The divison was loaded. some of the Guys he beat like Yaqui Lopez were much better than their record suggests.

Too bad his career ended on such a low point.

 

Marvin Johnson was not only a former two time champion, but also a future champion. Nobody ever defeated Marvin the way Michael took him out. Qawi was a virtually flawless boxing exhibition. Michael never had any trouble whatsoever making 175, and was in a situation where he was going to dominate the light heavyweights as long as he cared to when he moved up to challenge Holmes. He already had ten successful title defenses at that point, and possible could have had 20 more if he didn't get bored and disinterested first. He had nothing left to achieve at the lower weight. Yes, Michael is my all time top light heavyweight to hold that championship. (Charles and Tunney may have been greater, but neither ever held that world title.) He was as close to invincible at LHW as any champion of his era in any weight class.

 

Well, he got a huge payoff for 90 seconds of work, and is apparently healthy and happy in retirement. What Tyson did to him was hardly a surprise. MSpinks had already gone much further than anybody could have projected when he cheered big brother Leon to victory over Ali. Tyson wiped out plenty of notable heavyweights with similar dispatch.

 

You have to look at the stage of their careers he fought them, though.