The most underrated fighter ever

the left hook that nearly decapitated the concrete-chinned Dick Tiger and the one that nearly vaporized Mike Quarry are two of the most impossibly fast and ridiculously powerful hooks I have ever seen... Foster was special

 

correct on both counts. Spinks often appeared skittish, and to the untrained eye- downright nervous... but at the end of the day he was always on top... and when Spinks didnt respect a guy's power he would go after him, he would bring the Jinx down, and he was a furious hitter, easily one of the hardest hitting 175 pounders... not quite Foster, but close enough

and Tam makes a great point, p4p Michael is greater than Foster, and I would place him ahead of Foster on a greatest LHW list because the division he ruled was the second best in history (behind only Ezzard Charles' era) while Foster's division was one of the weaker ones... BUT, Foster's sickening domination of that division is noteworthy, and I agree with Tam that in a matchup between the two, I would have a tough time picking against Foster

 

Harada is the only man to ever beat Eder Jofre, the greatest Bantamweight ever, and he beat Pone Kingpetch for the flyweight title and got jobbed in his first fight against Johnny Famechon (for the featherwiegth crown)... incredibly underrated fighter

sure, Jofre struggled to make wieght, but Harada is the only guy to beat him, and he did it twice

Elorde is also forgotten... if not for his propensity for being cut, he might have de-throned Sandy Saddler... he is also hurt because 130 wasnt a glamour division at that time and Elorde was caught between being a Featherweight (where he was often a little too big to make the weight comfortably) and Lightweight (where he was too small and was cosnequently outmuscled

 

Personally........as great a fighter that Spinks was, I think he is overrated, not underrated.

Let's look. His biggest wins were his KO of Marvin Johnson, the title winning effort versus Muhammad.....the ugly win over Qawi and his two wins over Holmes.

Let's look closer.

Johnson was a good win,..but Marvin had already been stopped by Eddie and Saad recently.

Muhammad had just moved up to fight at heavyweight, unsuccessfully against Snipes,...and then two months later defended against Spinks.

Qawi was 8 inches shorter in height and more than that in reach....and Spinks hadda run like a bitch to win a split decision.

BOTH his wins over Holmes are tainted to a point imo,...not just the second.

And in his last bout he was stretched by Tyson who didn't even land the 1000th best punch or combo he ever landed.

And in between all of that........the Light Heavyweight title defenses were against scrubs.

I like Mike...but imo he is OVERrated, not underrated.

 

Fighting Harada :bears:

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:laughing:

 

My thoughts exactly.

Spinks was a bad ass at 175. Anyone who disputes that doesnt know boxing.

 

yep, and to denigrate the way he easily outboxed Qawi and bested Mustafa is absurd

 

dsimon writes:

they are an interesting family. Leone was no slouch himself though his brother was the Floyd in the family while he was the Roger.