Mike Spinks vs Frank Bruno

Bruno.

It's one thing to say that a light punching heavy could outbox a power punching heavy, but saying a LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT could outbox a power punching heavy is another thing for 12 rounds.

I can't imagine Bruno getting stopped either against Spinks.

Spinks gets destroyed.

 

I agree with you but not just because it is as simple as being a big vs small fight. If Spinks handed out the kind of beating he produced against inactive, part timer Cooney in another fight with a genuine contender relevant to the era (he was supposedly the best heavyweight in the world) I would be forced to say Spinks COULD beat Frank.

However, Spinks did not. Just one example would have been enough for me. Spinks did not prove that he would (or could)win a fight like that. Spinks avoided fights like this because he did not have that kind of confidence in himself at that weight class. Maybe he could have but not without beleiving in himself.

Without proving he could beat a relevant heavyweight in some style I cannot pick him. All spinks proved at heavyweight was that by 1987 he had beat two men who had not been regarded as being elite heavyweights since 1982. Both Holmes and Cooney were fighting outside their era when he beat them.

 

I think it is as simple as a big vs. small fight.

Spinksy has a small neck at 15 1/2 inches. He was barely 200 lbs when he fought Holmes the first time.

Additionally, Frank had a long reach at 82'' that he could use to outjab a smaller man with a very pedestrian reach (76") so it would be difficult for Mike to outbox. Frank could jab very well.

The punches Bruno landed on Lewis would have had Mike looking up into the lights...

 

Yes but if it was as simple as big v small Cooney would have won too right?

The reason I pick Frank is because Spinks did not believe in himself as a heavyweight because he avoided relevant contenders like Bruno. For my money Spinks does not have the heavyweight pedigree to guarantee a win like this. A young big man on the way up who is rated and current. Not yesterday men like Larry and Gerry.

However, given the way he dismantled a big man like Cooney proves to me that the size and power in itself was not the problem to Spinks that you might think it is. With one win like this against a younger, rated fighter of Cooneys size I would pick Spinks every day of the week.

He did not so it is Frank for me.

 

That says it all for me. Spinks simply wasn't elusive enough to stop Frank landing those kind of shots at some point of the 12 rounds.

 

I would pick Spinks tentatively.

 

Naturally...