If you can punch and move against Tua, stay off the ropes and keep doing it for 12 rounds you win. End analysis. Spinks 12-0.
Pretty easy betting fight. Spinks by decision straddled by Tua by KO. Only two ways it can conceivably go.
Tua masterfully jabs and uses the most subtle lateral movement... Spinks, limited and frustrated has to resort to trying for a one-punch KO It's the Locche/Fujii of the heavyweights with that brilliant ring general, David Tua, showcasing his unique Samoan untouchable-ness
I'm as big a critic of Tua as anyone, but Spinks was a total, utter fraud above LHW. It would be a dicey encounter. Spinks would never have the courage to do enough in there to win a shut-out.
I dont think Tyson had cause for much relentlessness, did he? Spinks willingly laid down, its not as if that bout showed us you needed to be hard-and-fast with Spinks. That result mustve embarrassed Holmes no end.
Disagree, completely Spinks was not a great heavyweight by any stretch but to decision Larry Holmes even when he was starting to fade was still an accomplishment that 95% of the world's heavyweights would have failed to register Joe Mesi is a total, utter fraud, not Mike Spinks
Spinks by a wide decision. Tua is not even a poor man's Tyson. Tua could hit and Spinks was vulnerable at heavy, but outside of the puncher's chance for Tua...it's all Spinks.
Perhaps true, but it would mean extremely little against a fighter like Tua. Spinks could open up & accrue points against Holmes, not with impugnity, but with at least some degree of safety. After Holmes (& Spinks flat lost their rematch), Spinks was manouevred with extreme care. His handlers knew what a sitting duck he was, & he was guided with that in mind. His career bears that out plainly. His one fight against a HW who could punch & wasn't totally shot to bits was a 90-second quit-job. Spinks could beat Tua (I keep saying it, but this guy was just terrible, even at his mediocre best), but I wouldn't be confident of it.
Since its rare I make any kind of useful observation Im gonna milk this one- it's exceedingly rare Tua managed any effective offense against an opponent who wasn't standing still and not punching back at him. If a heavy bag started swinging I'm positive Tua would either put his shell defense up or throw pitty pat measuring shots until the thing came to a halt again. Spinks easy
Yes, as I see it. I have always believed very strongly, watching the footage, that Spinks went into the tank. It was a con-job, and I never saw it as a convincing one. Tua might well have done it for real.
I completely agree with you Ramonza and so you are not alone. Spinks QUIT plain and simple and I have always thought so since the fight. I remember watching it live and he almost quit in his dressing room before the fight...Butch Lewis had to beg him to come to the ring. On the ring walk he looked like a man being lead to the gas chamber. I've never seen a fight as terrified. Spinks intended to lay down the moment Tyson put pressure on him and the whole scrambling to get up and then falling through the ropes was an obvious act...just look at his expression.
I could not agree more. To me, that look on his face just before he gets up and, "falls," into the ropes is amazingly transparent.
BTW, I have to give a little bit of credit to Frank Bruno in the next fight for that - he was probably even more scared than Spinks (I read somewhere that he blessed himself thirty something times on his ring walk:laugh11:) and he basically went down from a woosh of air about 10s in, in terror.....but he fought through it until he wasn't scared anymore. I kinda like that.
Spinks by wide decision every time. Too quick, too awkward and he would hit just hard enough to get Tua's respect even though he wouldn't hurt Tua he would put him in his defensive shell. Tua too slow, too reliant on his power, too unwilling to open up reduced to stalking with his only hope to land a bomb out of nowhere. Spinks easily. Gibola
