BoxRec

For me it's hard to understand Spinks decision to retire in the wake of one bad one minute round against Mike Tyson.


However, I did meet him, and I came to understand by way of those who knew him rather well, that he was good with his money, and perhaps lucky in his investments......and felt he "had enough to get by forever". I also got the impression from him that he was not overly egotistical, and didn't feel he had much left to prove. And as much as he "liked" the fight game, he didn't "love" it. I have to say that "wise" may be a fair description of the man I met. And Leon was just one of the happiest athletes I've ever met. I was told he was always up for a good time. And what I saw of him would bare that out. However....he didn't seem to share the same sort of "Zen Wisdom" that his younger brother possessed. They both shared another trait....they seemed to very much "live for the moment". They shared an interesting peacefulness, even when faced with zany situations.


With that said, I'd be interested to hear your top three light heavyweights since he retired.

Roy Jones Jr. is the obvious one.

After that it gets a little tougher. I suppose Hopkins, Andre Ward and a few others could be in the conversation. It's kinda a toss up after Roy really.

As nobody was especially dominant at the weight other than him for a sustained period of time.

Maybe Adonis Stevenson? I don't know though I wouldn't say so, but some might.

RJJ
Dawson
Bivol

Jaywheel wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 12:10 RJJ
Dawson
Bivol

Yeah Dawson did have a great run that gets overlooked. Because some of the other names that'll come to mind when you're thinking of the answer to this. Tarver, Glen Johnson, Hopkins. Dawson beat all those guys.

When he fell off the Horse, he stayed fallen off, but he had a good run before falling off.

Virgil Hill had a good run

Jones
Moorer
Hill

Maske, Tarver, Michalczewski, Dawson, Kovalev were all pretty successful too.
Although Maske and Darius M fought a fair amount of dross and at home.

Jones, Ward, Kovalev.

Roy
Darius
Hill

Ward has the ko win over kovalev and the decision "win" over him. He didnt really campaign at lhw much

Jones
Moorer
Ward

Beterbiev will crack the top three if he beats Bivol and vice versa

Two people picking Moorer!

What the hell did he do at light heavy? What? Literally never ventured beyond the safe confines of the WBO!

Tuan_Jim wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 19:00 Two people picking Moorer!

What the hell did he do at light heavy? What? Literally never ventured beyond the safe confines of the WBO!

He was devastating, but yes the WBO title at the time was not considered a major title, it'd be another 12 or 13 years or so before it became prominent.

As far as their achievements at Light Heavyweight yes the likes of Chad Dawson, Virgil Hill, Kovalev, Stevenson did more than him.

Moorer probably could've beaten a fair share of them, or possibly could've, but he never really fought the best in the division at the time. He definitely accomplished far more as a Heavyweight, and I would imagine his achievement at Heavyweight combined with the fact that he knocked out all of his Light Heavy opponents is what gets people to rate him so highly. He's essentially one of them guys who gets ranked highly as a Light Heavy because of what you THINK he could've done rather than what he in fact did.

Roy Jones, Darius M. and Calzaghe.

Having put Jones in my top 3 I can't help but feel like I've given him a pass for his fights with Tarver; I'm not convinced that a younger version of Jones beats Tarver in a clear fashion.

Jones, Darius, Ward.

Tuan_Jim wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 19:00 Two people picking Moorer!

What the hell did he do at light heavy? What? Literally never ventured beyond the safe confines of the WBO!

He's underrated at heavy, overrated at light heavy.

Best three since Spinks?
Read that and thought it should be an easy answer but it's really not.

Jones is an easy answer but that's it.
Since Spinks a lot the top guys at 175 only had a few fights in the division, their best wins were against old men or just didn't fight enough of the other top lhw's of their time(why they didn't fight them is irrelevant, they either fought them or they did not).

Calzaghe and Ward don't belong because they didn't stay in the division long enough.

Joe had all of two fights at 175. He gave a 43-year-old fighter his 3rd loss in 5 fights and a faded version of Jones his 4th loss in 7 fights.
Grand achievements there.
Ward wasn't fighting old men but he still only had four fights at 175. He had a good run but top three over a 30+ year time frame on those four fights?
Not for me.

Hopkins had a good run at 175 but let's not forget a large part of the credit he gets for his work at 175 is due to his advanced age during his time at 175. He was 41 when moved up to the division and went 8-4-1 with a no contest at 175.
A natural lhw fighting the same opponents with the same results from say age 25 to age 36 would not have received anything close to the same credit as the aged Hopkins. Nobody would say that guy was one of the top three since Spinks.
Hopkins deserves every bit of the good credit he got for his work at 175 but if we're going to compare him to other lhw's we need to recognize the age factor and remember young fighters in or near their primes get judged by a different standard than boxers who are over 40.

Same goes for younger boxers fighting old men.
Chad Dawson gets downgraded a bit for that. He had the win over Adamek but all the rest his top wins were against the over 40 crowd. He didn't do as well against the top guys closer to his age group. Had the big win over Adamek but lost to Pascal then Ward and was smashed into irrelevance by Stevenson.

Moorer had a weak resume at 175 as did some others.
The glass chin of Kovalev is hard to over look and his overall resume is certainly better than Moorer but not great either....but he is actually a good candidate for top three since Spinks imo
Tarver is another good candidate for top three since then....

From Spinks to today it's not easy to come up with three light heavies who stand out above the rest.

I will go with Jones, Hill and Darius.

goose 5 wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 20:58 Having put Jones in my top 3 I can't help but feel like I've given him a pass for his fights with Tarver; I'm not convinced that a younger version of Jones beats Tarver in a clear fashion.

I don't think he would have either but being the best doesn't mean you clearly beat everybody, barely scraping past a few of them is good enough.

Tuan_Jim wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 19:00 Two people picking Moorer!

What the hell did he do at light heavy? What? Literally never ventured beyond the safe confines of the WBO!

Moorer was the Tyson of the Light Heavies at the time. But looking at the fighters he faced, one should be subjective..I still think he is one of the top ten since Spinks at least.

To me it has to be Jones, Hopkins, maybe Michalweski or Maske but I never saw the European ones, so also wasnt Joe Calzaghe a Light Heavy at the end at least?

See thats the thing about not being able to see one fighter or the other....just like when there was no tv, in a case such as non-American boxers who are not or were not shown often on cable, especially in the 90s without internet or with much smaller internet coverage, you just have to go by records and old magazine clippings, which is hard to goby because you really just don't know...

goose 5 wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 20:58 Having put Jones in my top 3 I can't help but feel like I've given him a pass for his fights with Tarver; I'm not convinced that a younger version of Jones beats Tarver in a clear fashion.

Jones clearly beat Tarver in their first fight.

I had it a draw. Had Jones won clearly there would not have been such a demand for a rematch.

goose 5 wrote: ↑25 Jan 2021, 19:52 I had it a draw. Had Jones won clearly there would not have been such a demand for a rematch.

I thought Jones edged it narrowly but a lot of people thought he lost. I think the buzz was also because for the first time he had looked mortal.

Been 10 years or so since I last watched that fight but I had Jones edging it.

Anybody trying to say Jones clearly won that fight watched the fight they wanted to see not the one that actually happened.
Same goes for the clowns that said Tarver was robbed by the judges.

As goose 5 said there would not have been so much demand for a rematch if Jones had won it clearly.

Don't forget to give credit to Jones for taking the rematch.
Top boxers who were on the good end of a tight decision in a tough fight often refuse a rematch.
When Jones victory was questioned he got right back in the ring with that man.
That deserves some respect regardless of the outcome.

I had 9-3 Jones. Tarver just didn't do enough and tried to steal the rounds at the end.

Tuan_Jim wrote: ↑19 Jan 2021, 19:00 Two people picking Moorer!

What the hell did he do at light heavy? What? Literally never ventured beyond the safe confines of the WBO!

Moorer hammered a number of pretty decent fighters at light heavy. It was more of a case of how he looked, what he could have done, as opposed to his actual resume at LH that doesn't really stand up to the likes of Michalchewski, Hill, Tarver and Kovalev. I do tend to rate fighters highly in lower divisions that move up and have success at higher weights albeit I know that many posters on here think this is flawed.

That said, many posters have rated Ward in the top 3 LHs despite only having 5 or 6 fights in the division. To me he lost the first Kovalev fight and could have been DQ'd in the second. His resume at LH isn't great. Much less Joe Calzaghe who beat an ancient Hopkins and the shell of Roy Jones at LH. Moorer did more in the division than Ward and Calzaghe.