You want to talk about who was ranked? Was Tangstad ranked ? Was Cooney, who hadn't fought in over a year, and was a career high 238lbs ,13 lbs more than when he fought Holmes ranked? Spinks ducked a fight with Tucker, was stripped by the IBF for doing so and fought Cooney instead. True or False?
The original question who would win between Spinks & Tucker; you reckon Spinks - I reckon Tucker - fair enough. I'll answer you bit-by-bit. What had Tucker done? You mention the Broad victory as Tucker's best but disregard Tucker's win over Douglas! You build up Tangstad as some sot of legit contender including "Drew with Buster Douglas and beat two of Larry Holmes’ title challengers. Ok that’s not much. But it is more than Tucker." As Tucker had BEATEN Douglas whom Tangstad could only DRAW with, it is clearly NOT more than Tucker! I haven't tried to dispute your comments about Holmes beating Bey etc; I made the comment that Holmes had avoided top level comp post Witherspoon & mentioned Thomas, Page & a Witherspoon rematch & he did - as you know full well I am talking about the timeline of May 83 onwards until Holmes was no longer WBC champion & Witherspoon-Page fought for the vacant belt in March 84; do you dispute that Holmes avoided these guys in that timeline? Re my "spin" comment; I'll quote you and answer; "The same year Larry Pursued a unification with Gerrie Coetzee that would not come off and was forced to defend against Bonecrusher Smith before being stripped. On the same evening Mike Weaver was knocked out in the first round by a guy called Tony Anthony who was somehow disqualified because the bell rang at the same moment the punch landed. This unusual win granted Weaver a shot at WBC champ Thomas who also knocked him out.I kind of think Holmes becoming the first man to stop Bonecrusher is a better win than Thomas knocking out the guy who Tony Anthony just knocked out months previously." Holmes was not "forced" to defend against Bonecrusher Smith - Smith was still somewhat lightly regarded at that point - his only significant win at that point was his win over the then prospect Bruno - spin! Anthony "was somehow disqualified because the bell rang at the same moment the punch landed" - blatantly untrue. I watched this fight at the time - Anthony landed a right as the bell sounded and then sucker-punched Weaver with a left clearly after the bell as Weaver had his back to him and was walking back to his corner - more spin! "I kind of think Holmes becoming the first man to stop Bonecrusher" - untrue - James Broad (whom you've earlier derided - turned the trick in Bonecrusher's first fight - factually incorrect at best - more spin at worst. I and other posters have pointed out to you that you twist facts to support your arguments. Re your final comment “I don’t like that theory so it must be somebody spinning a devious agenda” you've attributed quotes to me that I have not said!!! If that is not spin? What is?
This has nothing to do with who would win between Tucker and Spinks - absolutely nothing. Again, this has nothing to do with how a Tucker - Spinks match would go. Completely different fighters. Regardless the Tucker that beat Douglas would have been awkward for the jaded overconfident version of Holmes that Spinks fought initially. You can make a decent argument for either which some have already done.
Tucker never took Holmes that close, or anyone like it by 1987. Just James Broad-ass. Keep in mind Tuckers claim to fame was he beat The same guy Marvis Frazier beat.
The win over Douglas needs to be taken into context with the timeline. At that point Douglas (and I like buster) was no more than a USBA title candidate. Nobody knew who he was either. He did have a win over Page and Tex Cobb but he was not unbeaten. Buster also beat no real gate keepers to warrant inclusion in a fight to decide the best in the world yet. yeah, Tucker beat Douglas only because Spinks was stripped. Going into a fight with Spinks as the champ Tucker has not met Douglas yet. And as I have already demonstrated at that time neither Douglas nor Tucker had earned elite status. Far from it.
Cooney was rated #10 by the IBF when he fought Spinks. Spinks wasn't stripped for ducking Tucker or because he signed to fight Cooney. He was stripped because Gerry Cooney refused to participate in the HBO heavyweight tournament if he won the title. All the orgs were involved in the unification tournament. All the guys fighting for the belts had to agree to continue in the tournament. If Cooney had agreed to participate, the IBF would've sanctioned it. Tucker wasn't some dominant challenger who had been waiting for years for a shot or anything. He was a guy who moved up in the ratings because everyone else had lost since he (Tucker) had last been in the ring. Spinks was guaranteed no less than $7 million to fight Cooney instead of Tucker (who Spinks would've fought for $1 million). Of course he wanted the Cooney fight. Tyson and Tucker only got $2 million for the final. It was another ridiculous call by Bob Lee and the IBF. Cooney didn't even win, so the decision to strip Spinks was ridiculous. Whatever. Spinks beats Tucker. Spinks was in fine form the night he stopped Cooney. Spinks scored six knockdowns in his three successful lineal title defenses. Tucker never stopped anyone of note except Douglas, who didn't really get stopped so much as he (Douglas) stopped fighting after getting into it with his dad in the corner. Douglas and his dad didn't work together again after that.
Yeah. Cooney was ranked. Dublechin proved it. And even as “part time” as Cooneys career had become he was still more credible than Tucker was that year. The basis for Tucker being regarded so high certainly was not universal because he had done nothing.
"Spinks was stripped of the [url]IBF[/url] heavyweight title in February of 1987 for refusing to fight [url]Tony Tucker[/url], the #1 IBF contender. [url]Don King[/url] won the right to promote a Spinks-Tucker title fight with a purse bid of $711,000. In the case of a purse bid, the purse is divided 75 percent to 25 percent in favor of the champion. That would mean $533,250 for Spinks. Instead of fighting Tucker, Spinks fought Cooney for a guaranteed purse of $4 million. Cooney was guaranteed #2.5 million", True!
WRONG! See my post below ! Spinks was guaranteed $4million! "Spinks was stripped of the [url]IBF[/url] heavyweight title in February of 1987 for refusing to fight [url]Tony Tucker[/url], the #1 IBF contender. [url]Don King[/url] won the right to promote a Spinks-Tucker title fight with a purse bid of $711,000. In the case of a purse bid, the purse is divided 75 percent to 25 percent in favor of the champion. That would mean $533,250 for Spinks. Instead of fighting Tucker, Spinks fought Cooney for a guaranteed purse of $4 million. Cooney was guaranteed #2.5 million",
