Naseem Hamed showed he was a bit of a front runner by not avenging his loss and retiring not too long after the beating barrera gave him. Gene Tunney on the other hand set the record straight with Greb and went on to dominate his division and even moved up to conquer hw. He rates much higher for me.
Yes, Naz was on the center line far too much v Barrera, really overrated defensively, Tunney`s footwork was better in his respective weight class.
I think it would have helped Spinks' historical standing if he'd fought on after losing to Tyson. If I recall correctly Mike had some bad knees, apparently from running in boots on pavement, and getting KTFOed mixed with the injuries convinced him to call it a career. I'm usually not a guy who roots for a guy to keep going once he's checked out, but Spinks might be an exception. How many guys in the IBHOF had taken less damage in their career? Maybe a handful, but not many. He could have commanded some serious $'s for a handful of big fights before bowing out. I would favor Spinks over most of the heavyweights at that time. I think getting a few wins under him would have help dull the memory of him folding so swiftly to Tyson. Yikes, because that loss is just about the worst loss to have on your record.
There was no point in Spinks continuing. He just got totally annihilated by Tyson and no one in a million years would ever dream of matching him up against Tyson again. At that time it seemed that Tyson would be champion for as long as he wanted so what would be the motivation for Spinks to carry on fighting and meeting lesser opponents in non title fights knowing that it would never lead to another shot at the title?
Spinks moving down to cruiserweight and fighting Holyfield for the CW title would have probably been a big moneymaker. Only thing I can think of for Spinks that would have been financially worth fighting on for at that point in his life.
