Michael Spinks

Gino Dragon · Post by **Gino Dragon** » 09 Mar 2006, 21:57

Did he retire too soon???How would it be his future if he didn'retire???Can he considered one of the bests heavyweights in history???

BoxBuzz · Post by **BoxBuzz** » 09 Mar 2006, 22:07

I used to think he retired to early but I have been told he had knee problems that were pretty profound.

cybox · Post by **cybox** » 09 Mar 2006, 22:33

I was sad to see Spinks reitre but I doubt his knees would have held up too much longer. A fight with Holyfield would have been an interesting bout and a Spink-Morrison fight would have made a few bucks I bet as well in the early 90's.

jedijojo · Post by **jedijojo** » 10 Mar 2006, 00:29

Is he okay financially?

vargas · Post by **vargas** » 10 Mar 2006, 00:45

jedijojo wrote:Is he okay financially?

I read somewhere that he is doing good financially, although his brother Leon is broke.

Evander · Post by **Evander** » 10 Mar 2006, 00:49

Michael Spinks seemed to be a nice person.
He was a good fighter also,but I just wouldn't put him up with the greats.
There didn't seem to be a strong Light Heavy Weight division.
He beat an aging Larry Homes and when presented with a solid Heavyweight in Mike Tyson it went pear shaped.
Michael Spinks had an offbeat likeable style,but the Tyson defeat both quelled his legacy and fuelled a serious up an comer.

Controversial · Post by **Controversial** » 10 Mar 2006, 00:57

Gino Dragon wrote:Did he retire too soon???How would it be his future if he didn'retire???Can he considered one of the bests heavyweights in history???

I don't think he can be considered a heavyweight great. He won two disputed decisions over an aged Larry Holmes. He stopped Stefan Tangsted and Cooney (hardly great names) then got flattened by Tyson. A great light-heavyweight not a great heavyweight.

I don't think he had much chance of staying at heavyweight because he wouldn't have beat Tyson no matter how many times they fought.

billythekid · Post by **billythekid** » 10 Mar 2006, 01:48

Mike Spinks had told people he really didn't even like boxing that much. I read in an SI article he told the reporter he was good at it but didn't really love it like other fighters may. He often would contort his body in weird ways to avoid being hit. When he got the big payday against tyson and hung it up some were surprised he quit. But no one who really knew him.

Rocky Balboa · Post by **Rocky Balboa** » 10 Mar 2006, 11:09

It's hard to say if Spinks retired to early, but he was a smart man as well as a very, very high calibre fighter.

He is fine financially, today. He made $13.5M for his last fight against Tyson, by far the biggest purse for a challenger for a world title at the time!

Spinks was a smart man with his money, and Spinks and Butch Lewis invested wisely. Lewis looked out for Michael interests a great deal, and I'm sure they are still great friends today, and may even have business ventures still today.

By stark contrast, elder brother Leon, is not ok financially, but states he's too proud to ask his brother for financial help, even though Michael would help him!

Nile4000 · Post by **Nile4000** » 10 Mar 2006, 11:36

Gino Dragon wrote:Did he retire too soon???How would it be his future if he didn'retire???Can he considered one of the bests heavyweights in history???

In retrospect, Michael probably retired at the right time.If he had kept on going, someone like a Tucker, or maybe Holyfield, would've beaten him.You can't really consider him one of the best heayweights in history.True, he beat an old Larry Holmes, and kayoed Cooney, but he really didn't do enough at the weight to consider him an all-time great.At Light Heavyweight, he is definitely a top five all time great, though the only knock against him to some degree was that his knee injury kept him from probably fighting other top people in his weight, like Mike Rossman or maybe even Galindez himself.

Autobarn · Post by **Autobarn** » 10 Mar 2006, 11:57

Evander wrote:Michael Spinks seemed to be a nice person.
He was a good fighter also,but I just wouldn't put him up with the greats.
There didn't seem to be a strong Light Heavy Weight division.
He beat an aging Larry Homes and when presented with a solid Heavyweight in Mike Tyson it went pear shaped.
Michael Spinks had an offbeat likeable style,but the Tyson defeat both quelled his legacy and fuelled a serious up an comer.

are you mad? he made 10 defenses in the toughest ever light heavy division (ok, a very very tough one at least). Look at the men he beat: Qawi, Mustafa, Marv Johnson, Yaqui Lopez. Add to that he beat Holmes (one deserved win, one dubious) and thrashed Cooney. Spinks was a skinny light heavy and skinny light heavies get cut in two by stocky powerful heavyweights (see Bob Foster vs Frazier).

RiddickBowe · Post by **RiddickBowe** » 10 Mar 2006, 12:49

Rocky Balboa wrote: He made $13.5M for his last fight against Tyson, by far the biggest purse for a challenger for a world title at the time!

Spinks was the true champion in that fight. He beat Holmes and only had his title stripped from him because of political shenanigans.

Gino Dragon · Post by **Gino Dragon** » 10 Mar 2006, 13:23

He defeated Tyson once in amateur...

Gino Dragon · Post by **Gino Dragon** » 10 Mar 2006, 13:24

He defeated Tyson once in amateur...

Gino Dragon · Post by **Gino Dragon** » 10 Mar 2006, 13:24

He defeated Tyson once in amateur...

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 10 Mar 2006, 14:36

Gino Dragon wrote:He defeated Tyson once in amateur...

No he didn't.

BoxBuzz · Post by **BoxBuzz** » 10 Mar 2006, 14:39

Yeah Kojoe comes through! I was racking my brain on that one, I was pretty damn sure that was some kind of "revisionist" history.

mattyp151 · Post by **mattyp151** » 10 Mar 2006, 14:41

KOJOE90 wrote:
Gino Dragon wrote:He defeated Tyson once in amateur...
No he didn't.

Did he beat him once, three times, or none at all...can someone clarify?

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 10 Mar 2006, 14:44

Mattyp151 wrote:
KOJOE90 wrote:
Gino Dragon wrote:He defeated Tyson once in amateur...
No he didn't.
Did he beat him once, three times, or none at all...can someone clarify?

The Tyson - M.Spinks amateur triligy was 0-0-0.

The was talk of a fourth fight in 76 but as Tyson was about 8 years old he couldn't get the time off school.

Rocky Balboa · Post by **Rocky Balboa** » 10 Mar 2006, 15:51

Spinks was the true champion in that fight. He beat Holmes and only had his title stripped from him because of political shenanigans.

Vaild point, but remember Spinks decided to opt out of the HBO tournament series, it was his own-doing.

If he stayed within the tournament, Tyson-Spinks may have happened sooner than it did. However, I doubt the out-come would have been different, Tyson would have still won, IMO!

Dropping out of the HBO series actually worked in both fighters favour; both got paid a great deal more than they would have the fight been within the HBO series! Smart move, I guess!

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 10 Mar 2006, 16:33

He never fought Tyson as an amateur, that's a dead cert.

A great lightheavyweight champion, no doubt about that. The Spinks Jinx right hand could flatten a wall, and probably one of the hardest single punches in 175 1lb history.
Shame he never got to test it on Tyson - he threw it, missed, and Mike stepped in with the finisher.
The End.

Michael Spinks has kept his millions I'm sure. They used to say if you managed to borrow 50 cents from him, he'd track you down to pay him back even if it was 10 years later! Think Butch Lewis said that.

Great fighter and a shame he's remembered for his last fight, rather than his glory years at LH.

slappy · Post by **slappy** » 10 Mar 2006, 18:36

Rocky Balboa wrote:
Spinks was the true champion in that fight. He beat Holmes and only had his title stripped from him because of political shenanigans.
Vaild point, but remember Spinks decided to opt out of the HBO tournament series, it was his own-doing.

If he stayed within the tournament, Tyson-Spinks may have happened sooner than it did. However, I doubt the out-come would have been different, Tyson would have still won, IMO!

Dropping out of the HBO series actually worked in both fighters favour; both got paid a great deal more than they would have the fight been within the HBO series! Smart move, I guess!

It was a brilliant move. They knew Tyson couldn't be the recognized champ until he beat the man who dethroned Holmes. I remember Spinks not having any title but the poster said, 'for the linear heavyweight championship.' Great move by Butch Lewis.

Gino Dragon · Post by **Gino Dragon** » 10 Mar 2006, 22:46

That was part of their fight's promo I still remember it...When the ref lift Spinks hand...And in the fight they were talking that Spinks won fights with one hand and that he would won just using his jab...I still remember that fight when Tyson was a killing machine...

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 11 Mar 2006, 09:25

Gino Dragon wrote:That was part of their fight's promo I still remember it...When the ref lift Spinks hand...And in the fight they were talking that Spinks won fights with one hand and that he would won just using his jab...I still remember that fight when Tyson was a killing machine...

Are you really honestly saying that you think Amatuer Middleweight Michael Spinks fought Heavyweight Mike Tyson in an amateur fight.

Spinks had his last amateur fight in 1976 before turning professional in early 1977, when Tyson was about 9 years old and had never even laced on a Boxing glove.

Or are you trying to tell us all here that Spinks the Olympic Middleweight Boxing Champion had one final amateur fight against a nine year old school boy with no Boxing experience?

Either this is a wind up or your memory is screwed up in a bad way on this subject.

barry · Post by **barry** » 11 Mar 2006, 09:32

Hell, Tyson did not have his first amateur bout until 1980, or 1981.

Below is a link to part of Tyson's amateur record. I have his complete amateur record somewhere and he and Spinks never fought as an amateur!

http://www.geocities.com/pedrinet/tyson.html

Michael Spinks

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