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| Hobby Forum Index » Sport - Boxing » Michael Spinks as Heavyweight..how good was he?... |
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| Vanman... |
 Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:21 pm |
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Michael at heavyweight was a brief affair to say the least. Two narrow wins
over Larry Holmes (2nd dubious) and a wipeout loss to Mike Tyson (ok and a
win over an aged Gerry Cooney). Not exactly a deep resume in some sense.
How do you think Michael would have done against other contenders at the
time such as Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Frank Bruno, Bonecrusher
Smith, Tony Tucker etc. Would he have been just "in the mix" or would he
have stood above that mix as lets say the 2nd best heavyweight after Mike
Tyson (on a tier above the mix)? |
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| ddcatdd at (no spam) yahoo.com... |
| Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:35 pm |
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On Oct 31, 2:21 pm, "Vanman" <Vancan... at (no spam) shaw.ca> wrote:
Quote: Michael at heavyweight was a brief affair to say the least. Two narrow wins
over Larry Holmes (2nd dubious) and a wipeout loss to Mike Tyson (ok and a
win over an aged Gerry Cooney). Not exactly a deep resume in some sense.
How do you think Michael would have done against other contenders at the
time such as Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas, Frank Bruno, Bonecrusher
Smith, Tony Tucker etc. Would he have been just "in the mix" or would he
have stood above that mix as lets say the 2nd best heavyweight after Mike
Tyson (on a tier above the mix)?
In point of fact, Michael Spinks got thumped by Eddie Davis back
in Feb/1984 but Michael got the gift decision. We needn't worry
about him as a heavyweight. |
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| Vegard... |
| Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:39 am |
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Vanman wrote:
Quote: Michael at heavyweight was a brief affair to say the least. Two
narrow wins over Larry Holmes (2nd dubious) and a wipeout loss to
Mike Tyson (ok and a win over an aged Gerry Cooney). Not exactly a
deep resume in some sense.
Michael Spinks also fought and beat Steffen Tangstad as a HW in '86.
Tangstad was the european HW champ at the time.
Tangstad had wins against way over the hill Joe Bugner and Lucien Rodriguez.
Rodrigues went the distance with Larry Holmes some years earlier.
Tangstad also fought Buster Douglas to a draw back in '82.
Tangstad was my hero when I was a kid. He was the only ranked boxer fighting
out of Norway at the time. From reading the papers, the average norwegian
would get the impression that he was almost unbeatable and destined to be HW
champion of the world. The more knowledgeable ones (mainly the boxing
community) knew of course that this wasn't so. Anyway, Tangstad got at shot
at the title.
I watched this fight in a closed circuit. I was so nervous that I could not
control my legs. My whole body was shaking as the bell rang for the first
round.
The way I saw it then, Tangstad backed up Spinks early. He connected well
with a couple of shots thrown in combination. Spinks however, was in total
control of the situation. In the 3rd round Spinks started to hurt Tangstad
with the left jab. Tangstad had decent boxing skills, but hat neither a
punch nor a chin. That wasn't enough against Spinks on this night. The
contest was ended in round 4 with Tangstad on his feet (as I recall it)
after having been down a couple of times.
Tangstad has fared well later in life. He has been doing some boxing
promoting in Scandinavia, and he is used as an expert commentator whenever
there is a major boxing event on TV. Which btw, doesn't happen too often in
Norway. Tangstad has also participated in Norway's version of "So you think
you can dance".
Back to Spinks: I give him credit for retiring and staying retired after his
loss to Tyson. Man, Tyson was good in those days. So quick and accurate. And
what a defence!
I think Spinks would've done OK against the other HW's at the time. A match
between spinks and Holyfield could have been a good one. Two mean SOBs that
both knew every trick in the book, dirty ones included. They both had great
chins, and matched against each other I think it would have gone the
distance as neither of them were what you would call power punchers.
- Vegard |
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