Ringside Report Looks Back At Michael Spinks
By Anthony “Zute” George
As this week marks the twenty-ninth anniversary of Mike Tyson’s one round destruction of Michael Spinks, arguably Iron Mike’s finest ring accomplishment, I want to remind everyone of how great a fighter Michael Spinks was, as he is largely identified by this one defeat. His only defeat.
Spinks was the anchor of the 1976 United States Olympic team, a team that has gone down in boxing lure as the greatest ensemble of amateur pugilists of all-time. Michael won the Gold Medal in the middleweight division and seemed destined to be a great professional. Michael began his professional quest on April 16, 1977, when he stopped Eddie Benson in one round. Michael’s professional career was a bit sedated in the early going, however, as he took on an integral role in preparing Leon Spinks, his more decorated brother at the time, for his career.
Unlike Michael Spinks, Leon seemed destined for combat sports, he had natural ability and thoroughly enjoyed punching somebody in the face; Leon did not mind getting punched in the face all that much either. Despite his lack of love for pure violence, Michael possessed a skill Leon never seemed to have, discipline. Michael was disciplined and patient enough to be part of his brother’s team in lieu of his own promising career. The move paid dividends, as Leon enjoyed one of the most important, as well as improbable, victories of the seventies, with his upset win over Muhammad Ali to capture the World Heavyweight Title. Many people were gambling online for Michael Spinks.
Unfortunately, The Leon Train did not last long, as Michael’s older brother’s love for women and partying took precedence over training. Leon’s fall was Michael’s rise, as the always cleaner liver, Michael set his sights on his own boxing career. 1980 was the first big year for Michael as a light heavyweight. He earned five victories that year, beating solid competition such as Ramon Ranquello, Murray Sutherland and Yaqui Lopez. 1981 was an even better year for Michael, as he knocked out the very formidable Marvin Johnson with one punch, a picture-perfect left hook.
Michael’s knockout over Johnson led to a title shot against WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Spinks won a 15-round unanimous decision in a fight that has been dubbed by many boxing fans as dull, however, in my estimation it was a very highly skilled chess match. The big blow was delivered by Spinks in the twelfth round, an overhand right known as The Spinks Jinx, dropped Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Spinks closed out the championship rounds in superior fashion, to secure the victory and his first world title.
Michael Spinks went on to defend his light heavyweight title ten times, including a unification victory over fellow Hall of Famer, Dwight Muhammad Qawi. Another fight that appeared on the surface to not live up to the press clippings. While far from a brawl, Spinks’ victory over Qawi is another great technical boxing match that I have enjoyed analyzing over the years. Michael Spinks fought as the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world five times, before setting his sights on the most prestigious honor in all of sports.
When Michael Spinks challenged Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title on September 21st, 1985, few in boxing game him a chance. There were not many writing off Holmes as being too old; even though Larry was just given a gift to the inexperienced Carl “The Truth” Williams. I think the consensus was that Spinks was just not big enough to be a heavyweight champion. He would fail, the same way great light heavyweight kings such as Archie Moore and Bob Foster did. Spinks never got the memo.
As typical of his ilk, Spinks was disciplined and determined to prove the critics wrong. To get in shape, Spinks turned to what was considered state of the art training techniques at the time to add muscle. Despite the serious nature of the regimen and Spinks’ tenacious commitment towards the program, Holmes remained a heavy favorite. HBO analyst and former 1976 Olympic Teammate, Ray Leonard, was critical of the training program at the time.
When the fight began it was clear Michael Spinks was ready for primetime. He outhustled and frustrated the long reigning champion Holmes over fifteen rounds. I am still surprised to this day that many boxing people view this as a controversial decision. While Spinks did not dominate Holmes in the sense that he beat him up, he clearly won more rounds than Holmes. At least this is my observation in the over twenty times I have watched this fight.
Nonetheless, Michael Spinks will go down in boxing history as the first light heavyweight champion to win heavyweight gold. Gene Tunney and Ezzard Charles are former heavyweight champions who are highly rated as light heavyweights. However, neither Tunney or Charles won the light heavyweight crown; making them somewhat oddities from my perception. How great of light heavyweights could they be considered if they never won or defended titles?
Especially during the time when there were only one or two belts, the hardest thing to do in sports was to become a world champion. The second hardest thing to do was to keep your title. As champion, everyone is coming for you, you must remain focused and hungry to defend against top contenders who want what you want. As great as Tunney and Charles may be, they never had to do that as light heavyweights. But I suppose this discussion is for another article.
Michael Spinks did become champion in both weight classes and defended his crown as champion. Spinks won three times after he defeated Holmes. Including a rematch against Holmes, in a much closer fight that Holmes should have won, and an impressive performance over the much larger Gerry Cooney, although only Ring Magazine recognized Michael Spinks as heavyweight champion at the time of the Cooney fight.
Michael was criticized more than he was praised as a heavyweight however, as he did not seem willing to be an active champion and avoided many promising fights against top heavyweight talent. At the same time, he did agree to fight Mike Tyson, so in my opinion it is a wash. Could Spinks have performed better against Tyson if he was more active? As Ray Arcel always said, to rest is to rust. Maybe not, but in hindsight it seemed foolish to fight a killer like Tyson after over a year layoff.
Michael Spinks never fought again after his loss to Tyson. For that reason, especially given the high magnitude of that fight, what he did prior to Tyson is somehow a blur for a lot of boxing fans. It should not be. Michael Spinks won Olympic Gold, a world title at light heavyweight, which he defended 10 times and became the first light heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight crown.
While I never rank fighters, I save that for boxing people much smarter than I, I find it hard to fathom Michael Spinks not being in the top five of all-time light heavyweight champions. I stress the word champion for all of you Tunney and Charles fans. Stylistically Spinks was a nightmare for any light heavyweight. He had power in both hands, had a great defense, solid jab, could fight in close and from distance, was a solid counter puncher and could fight backing up. Not to mention he was one of the more awkward fighters you ever want to see. The only quality Michael Spinks did not appear to possess as a boxer was that killer instinct, that sheer joy for violence his brother had and all-time greats, like Dempsey, Duran, Pryor and Tyson, just to name a few. Just imagine if he did.
Today, Michael Spinks seems content in retirement, is still inseparable with his brother Leon and is one of the more approachable boxers each year at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a true gift to boxing fans and should be considered one of the best light heavyweights of all time and one of the greatest living champions of today; I rarely hear his name mentioned when that conversation comes up. So, let us forget about the Tyson fight for one second, there are over one hundred rounds of boxing that represent the skill set of Michael Spinks in a more accurate way.
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