I recently watched Holmes-Spinks and he (Spinks) beat an undefeated Larry Holmes at the height of his career. If Larry Holmes was still in his physical prime at the time of this his first loss to Spinks is up for debate, but its no question that Holmes was at the height of his career as it relates to notoriety closing in on Rocky Marciano's 49-0 record.
Michael Spinks is a great fighter who doesn't get the respect he deserves as a fighter because he's remembered more for his loss to Mike Tyson than he for having a successful career.
He's an Olympic Gold Medalist during an era when Eastern Europeans and Cubans ruled amateur boxing, he's the first Light Heavyweight to win the Heavyweight Championship and he beat the recognized champion unlike Roy Jones who more the less "cherry picked" a scrap title, he twice defeated a very dominated version of Larry Holmes, and out of his entire career the only loss he has is to Mike Tyson.
I couldn't agree with you more Michael Spinks is very underrated and Boxing fans need to give him the respect that he deserves.
The same Larry Holmes who announced retirement 4 times, he kept coming back for big payday but mentally wasn't in there, not to mention that the fight was close and some dispute the decision.
Remember that same old semi-retired Holmes beat Spinks clearly in their second fight and was robbed, they wanted him to pass the torch to someone in their prime, when u cant decisively beat a fighter as old and out of shape as Holmes was, u dont deserve that much credit.
Yes. I think Michael Spinks didn't get much credit for it because at that time, everyone wanted Larry to get that 49-0 record.
It's underrated b/c he didn't win, at least IMO.
Spinks got gifts in both of their fights, but that's just me. I like Spinks a lot, and I agree he's an underrated fighter in general, but in this instance Holmes is the one who got screwed.
Spinks is an underated boxer but Holmes was past his best.
