Say in an alternate reality, Thomas had dethroned Larry Holmes by a SD. Afterwards, instead of going for a rematch, he retires (them returns to fight Tyson a few years later). Spinks moves up to heavyweight and challenges Pinklon Thomas. How do you see this playing out?
I was thinking about starting a thread on this just now ! So I’ll just use yours. Given that this would be Spinks’ first ever meeting at heavyweight it would place him at a disadvantage. But if this alternate reality still includes the fact that Thomas was waning due to his drug problems then I think Spinks has a real shot at winning a close decision
Pinklon Thomas kind of relied on that jab, he couldn’t hunt opponents and couldn’t fall back on combinations if someone took away his jab, which Spinks undoubtedly would do. Spinks is one of the greatest fighters I’ve ever seen in terms of taking away the jab and still staying on the back foot, he’d blitz in and out with explosive combinations, he’d take his head off centre line, change his trajectory of movement suddenly to take them off guard, he could get low, come up with his own jab or left hook, he could counter over the top with a right, all set up by lateral movement to force them into overstepping/overcommiting etc. Spinks would outsmart Pinklon Thomas.
True. Even at 35 and diminishing, Larry Holmes still had the best jab in the division and Spinks was able to neutralize it somewhat effectively
I think Thomas would have a terrible time with Michael and look really bad through most of this fight. That said, I think he'd find range for the jab and wear down Spinks physically. Michael catches a killer right, gets floored and stopped in 8 or 9.
