The Michael Spinks that fought Tyson, could he have beaten ANY VERSION of Tyson

The better question is "who couldn't beat the spinks that Tyson fought". That version of spinks was not ready to fight, he froze clearly. Could not focus and get going, just like Patterson against Liston or Schmeling against Louis. Sometimes the occasion can get to even a great fighter - and nobody can smell it better than the opponent! The smell of a frozen opponent brings out the best in any fighter. Spinks could not perform in that frame of mind, its kind of unfair to expect that version to be able to do anything.

 

I think he would certainly have beaten some of the later incarnations.

 

He was mentally beaten or I should say intimidated and that was one of the best parts of Mikes battle. Sometimes you have to see a fighter beaten to know that it can be done but I dont think Spinks had the tools to beat Tyson

 

He might not have been so intimidated if he had been faced by the Tyson of the MCBride fight.

 

Well............Obviously Spinks could have beaten THAT version. By then,Tyson was shot to pieces as a fighter.


For Spinks to have beaten Tyson,we're talikng anytime after the latter's fight with Lennox Lewis.

 

The intimidation factor is overblown in this fight. His facial expression has a lot to do with that. He had fought and sparred countless of times, he was used to taking punishment and had never shown any quit.

Tyson was too fast and explosive closing the distance on this night. Get a Tyson in there with cement feet, and Spinks shows him this way and goes another.

 

The story was pre -fight, the 2 fighters were housed in temporary dressing rooms side-by-side, and Tyson punched a hole in the thin common wall while warming up and Spinks witnessed it.

Probably any version of Tyson that could close the distance between the two fighters would knock Spinks out.

Spinks was orginally a MW in the Olympics, peaked at LH, and was overblown at Hvy.

 

Spinks was a good fighter. People forget how much of a chance spinks was being given against Tyson. It was a true showdown of undefeated heavyweight champions but what we did not know was the doubts spinks had. He could see how up for it Tyson was. He could feel the expectation, the pressure, the sence of foreboding and all micheal could probably think of was how much sharper Tyson would be compared to old Holmes, inactive Cooney and stefan Tangstad. By the time the bell went micheal was a sitting duck. A one round blow out just makes one guy look great and the other really bad.

Spinks could have given Tyson a better fight but he was unable to perform. We did not know then that micheal knew he had only built himself up mentally and physically to face one great heavyweight and that heavyweight was Larry Holmes. Deep down he had nothing more to offer. It was a psych job. He could convince himself that circumstances allowed him to get past A tired champion like Holmes but not the new monster on the block. All the training and confidence of beating Cooney could not help him. Psychologically he decided or knew he was beat so i think it is unfair to suggest a psychologically defeated man could beat another version of the same man.

The Spinks people bet on to beat Tyson (and a lot of people did) was the Spinks that beat Holmes but that guy never showed up against Tyson.

 

True that. Spinks always looked like he was about to pop his clogs ,even when he was winning...

 

true, things change once the cats out of the bag

 

I believe so. Tyson was defensively very good at this point. His timing was never better after and he was facing what was perceived by most boxing people as his toughest test, even though in retropsect it didnt look that way the way he blew Spinks away.

 

I agree. Spinks was just flat out, outclassed as were many of Tyson's opponents around this time. Tubbs blown out, Tucker and Smith, put in defensive shells. Alex Stewart was steamrolled and look what he did to Foreman and Holyfield. People seem to discount how good Tyson was in 88, probably one of the best heavyweights ever.

 

No, Mike just matches up too well against smaller HWs