BoxRec

I think it's between Spinks and Fenech...

I lean towards Fenech at the moment but it really could be either one of them.

Ezzard,
Spinks was clearly better than Fenech.
Spinks dominated a great era in the lightheavyweight division. He beat Marvin Johnson,Eddie Mustapha Muhammad,Dwight Braxton Qawi. Not to mention that he beat (albiet aging) Larry Holmes to become the first lightheavyweight champion to move up and win the heavyweight title.
The quality of Fenech's opponents doesn't even remotley compare to Spinks.

I'd say that Fenech's 'draw' with Nelson (consdiering how light Fenech started out) is a better performance than any of Spinks' wins.

I'm a big Spinks fan. he often gets overlooked in p4p debates...

Fenech also has Callejas whose destruction of Stecca still stays with me today. Fenech beat Zaragoza who still went on to do excellent things with his career. There are solid contenders on his resume like Coffee, Richardson and Olympian McCrory... He beat Villasana and Martinez too...

It's a close one and I wouldn't argue to vehemently.

Ambling Alp wrote:Ezzard,
Spinks was clearly better than Fenech.
Spinks dominated a great era in the lightheavyweight division. He beat Marvin Johnson,Eddie Mustapha Muhammad,Dwight Braxton Qawi. Not to mention that he beat (albiet aging) Larry Holmes to become the first lightheavyweight champion to move up and win the heavyweight title.
The quality of Fenech's opponents doesn't even remotley compare to Spinks.

Yep, M Spinks Is Leagues Above Fenech.

Mike Spinks is very definitely underrated in P4P debates. He's top 5 or 6 at least at light heavy, maybe top 3. He also had a successful spell at heavyweight until he froze in front of Tyson. That loss shouldnt detract from his overall resume, which is superb

dr_devious wrote:Mike Spinks is very definitely underrated in P4P debates. He's top 5 or 6 at least at light heavy, maybe top 3. He also had a successful spell at heavyweight until he froze in front of Tyson. That loss shouldnt detract from his overall resume, which is superb

Yep, agree buddy.

I

observer1 wrote:

Ambling Alp wrote:Ezzard,
Spinks was clearly better than Fenech.
Spinks dominated a great era in the lightheavyweight division. He beat Marvin Johnson,Eddie Mustapha Muhammad,Dwight Braxton Qawi. Not to mention that he beat (albiet aging) Larry Holmes to become the first lightheavyweight champion to move up and win the heavyweight title.
The quality of Fenech's opponents doesn't even remotley compare to Spinks.

Yep, M Spinks Is Leagues Above Fenech.

legues? fenech was ant all time great he was a star he should have been the first undefeated fighter to win world titles in 4 weights

I see Spinks and Fenech on a similar level... Surprised that some see one as leagues above the other. Just don't see it myself.

Regarding Michael Spinks. On the plus side. He beat some very good opponents at LHW. There probably wasen't another LHW in history who could have KO'd him. And, he did beat a still pretty good Larry Holmes in there first fight at HW.

On the downside. Instead of a record of 31-1, Spinks should be 29-3. He deserved a loss to Eddie Davis, who isn't a Top 50 LHW All Time in there title bout, and he was beaten by Larry Holmes in there rematch, though the judges said otherwise. And of course his claim to being the number 1 HW in the World was proven to be ridiculous when he met Mike Tyson.

Seamus wrote:Regarding Michael Spinks. On the plus side. He beat some very good opponents at LHW. There probably wasen't another LHW in history who could have KO'd him. And, he did beat a still pretty good Larry Holmes in there first fight at HW.

On the downside. Instead of a record of 31-1, Spinks should be 29-3. He deserved a loss to Eddie Davis, who isn't a Top 50 LHW All Time in there title bout, and he was beaten by Larry Holmes in there rematch, though the judges said otherwise. And of course his claim to being the number 1 HW in the World was proven to be ridiculous when he met Mike Tyson.

Seamus

Wasn't there some controversy regarding the Eddie Mutsapha match? Eddie came in over weight... Someone tried to broker a deal and Spinks insisted or something... My memory is not helping me but i rememebr reading an article in KO back in the 1980s that mentioned there being something odd about the fight.

Not sure Ezzard. That was quite a fight though. Eddie Mustafa had a clear lead through 6, but it was all Spinks after that and EMM took a beating. He was knocked down and had an eye nearly closed. It was about 2 months after he had been up to HW where he fought Renaldo Snipes and looked fat and out of his element.

Ezzard wrote: Wasn't there some controversy regarding the Eddie Mutsapha match? Eddie came in over weight... Someone tried to broker a deal and Spinks insisted or something... My memory is not helping me but i rememebr reading an article in KO back in the 1980s that mentioned there being something odd about the fight.

I'm not sure, but Eddie had weighed about 200 pounds or so for a heavyweight fight just two months earlier, and he supposedly had terrible trouble making weight for the Spinks match. Howard Cossell mentioned Eddie didn't even want to get out of bed to go to the weigh in, and Matthew Saad Muhammad (who was Eddie's friend) had to go to Eddie's hotel room and convince him to go through with the fight.

Seamus wrote:Regarding Michael Spinks. On the plus side. He beat some very good opponents at LHW. There probably wasen't another LHW in history who could have KO'd him. And, he did beat a still pretty good Larry Holmes in there first fight at HW.

On the downside. Instead of a record of 31-1, Spinks should be 29-3. He deserved a loss to Eddie Davis, who isn't a Top 50 LHW All Time in there title bout, and he was beaten by Larry Holmes in there rematch, though the judges said otherwise. And of course his claim to being the number 1 HW in the World was proven to be ridiculous when he met Mike Tyson.

I never saw the Davis match, but I agree with the rest.

Ezzard wrote:I see Spinks and Fenech on a similar level... Surprised that some see one as leagues above the other. Just don't see it myself.

Same here.