Decagon wrote:The Great John L wrote:People question his quality of opposition? Are you kidding? He beat some top notch fighters at LH.
Hey, I'm the guy ranking him #2 of all time at light heavyweight. Not that I endorse these views, but here's what I generally get:
- Sutherland was small, and he lost whenever he fought the best in the division.
- Lopez was old.
- Johnson was past his prime.
- Spinks only beat Muhammad because of the thumb, and the rematch never happened because of the fixed scales.
- (Usually, some reason comes up for not liking Qawi)
- Holmes was old, and he still beat Spinks twice.
- Cooney was old.
- Tyson was the first top fighter in his prime that Spinks faced, and
the same would've happened if the others had been in their respective primes.
- Spinks was afraid of Tyson, so he'd probably be afraid of Archie Moore, Bob Statterfield, Bob Foster and any light heavyweight with a pulse.
- Leon was better.
Brock, it was a joke based on the previous post. Wait a couple of posts and see how people react to what I said above.
Decagon,
I take it that you don't really believe most of this stuff either.
Sutherland was prboably better at Super Middleweight, but he was a pretty decent lightheavy. He was ptetty even with Saad Muhammed in their fight, before the referee stopped it. I remember Sutherland complaining bitterly about it being stopped..although I can't remember if the stoppage was justified or not. Maybe someone else can recall.
At any rate, spinks beat fighters better than Sutherland.
Lopez was only 29 when Spinks stopped him.He had been in some wars but he was still pretty tough.
Marvin Johnson was too old? He wasn't even 27 when Spinks knocked him out.He won the WBA belt after Spinks moved up to heavyweight.
I have know idea about this thumb business with Mustapha Muhammad. I remember someone talking on this forum about this a while back, but I don't remember anything about this when the fight happened or anyone else ever mentioning it.
I would hope that people wouldn't be factoring in Spinks heavyweight fights when rating him as a lightheavyweight. (Though moving up from lightheavyweight and beating Larry holmes even at stage in Holmes career is still an accomplishment. He looked pretty good in destroying Cooney.
However, I also suspect that the Tyson fight at least subconciously affects people when rating Spinks at lightheavyweight.
As far as being afraid of lightheavyweights, if he wasn't afraid of Qawi, Mustapha Muhammad Johnson etc.he wasn't going to be afraid of any lightheavyweight.
Spinsk came along at time when the lightheavyweight division may have been at it's highest level and he dominated it. It just seems like common sense that he would be seriously considered when thinking of who the the greatest lightheavyweight of all time was.