Who was the greater heavyweight?

Spinks.....only had 5 fights at Hw, but those 2 wins over Holmes are enough to place him higher than D Haye

 

Spinks' run at light-heavyweight alone is worthy of ATG status. Haye unified a very weak cruiser-weight division and immediately moved up not defending once.

Beating Larry Holmes eclipses anything Haye did by far. Not debatable. Hell, even drugged up ****ey is better than any of Haye's wins at heavyweight except maybe Chisora, which was a life and death struggle for him. That's how poor his run at heavyweight was.

 

You must be joking........No? !!!!!!!

 

Spinks

 

True, but I think Haye would have beaten Holmes in Spinks place. Not only could Haye box well and jab like Carl Williams who nearly beat Holmes, he also hit very hard.

In a head to head match up, I'd pick Haye over Spinks. If you ask me who accomplished more in their time I'd say, Spinks

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

I think Spinks' win over an aged Holmes or at least in the first fight was superior to anything Haye did at heavyweight. But it doesn't exactly place them leagues apart. Larry was old and had arguably been gifted against a 16 fight "Truth" in his last outing.. Spinks lost the rematch in most people's eyes. The rest of his heavyweight run consisted of beating up a horribly conditioned Gerry C00ney and the obscure Stephen Tangstad.. Not to mention a 91 second loss to Tyson.. Haye has his wins over an old Valuev, old Ruiz, Old Harrison, Monty Barrett and the decision loss to Wlad... Again I still edge spinks for resume but its not a wide margin by any means.. Head to head? I'd say its a tossup at that weight.

 

I think there IS considerable distance between them based on their HW results. With Spinks being clearly superior accomplished.

Even a 35/36 year old Larry Holmes is WAY better than any HW Haye beat, and Spinks' decisions against him were no more disputable than Haye's win over an even older Valuev (who was sh!t and probably got a gift against a 46-year old Holyfield ) ...

Even Tangstad would probably wipe the floor with (a 39-year old ) Audley Harrison, and he possibly beats Chisora, and Barrett too.
30-year-old C00ney probably smashes the old version of Ruiz, never mind the others, though he might struggle with Valuev for some reason.
C00ney at that stage is probably still 50-50 with Haye, if we're honest.

 

Spinks obviously had better victories at heavyweight. Even a shopworn 35/36 year old version of Larry Holmes was better than anyone Haye ever beat.

 

I think there are some obvious exaggerations here, but I concur that Spinks was superior at heavyweight.

 

No exaggerations.
Haye has among the absolute poorest records at HW of any HW alphabet champion.
His lasting 12 poor rounds with Klitschko and the grudge match with Chisora save him a little. Y'know, he's still ahead of Wilder.

 

Spinks was no great heavyweight though, admittedly.

 

His first decision win over Holmes eclipses anything Haye did and even that win is tainted due to Holmes being noticeably diminished. As for the remainder of his accomplishments in that class, they are right on par with what Haye did.. C00ney was so horribly prepared for that fight I honestly think Quick Tillis would have been a better opponent. At least Ruiz, Valuev, and Chisora were still relevant in some way. And then there's the mighty Tangstad who had no power, no chin, got beat by Anders Ecklund and went 12 rounds to take a split decision over the 7-3-2 John Westgarth right before fighting Spinks..

 

The edge is to Spinks ,and not because he has wins on PAPER to Holmes in fights he clearly lost,but its his win over C00ney and the lack of Hayes commitment to fight Wlad and run for 12 rounds. Valuev while not an easy guy to fight,is not top rank quality , C00ney was not at his best either however i'll take that win over anyone Haye has at HW.


If you reversed the two and put them in the others place , Haye by far has the easier time until he runs into Tyson, i don't believe a guy like Spinks would do very much to Valuev even if he out pointed him somehow in comparison,but resume wise I give it to spinks.