Michael Spinks vs. Gerry Cooney

Michael Spinks 209 lbs beat Gerry Cooney 238 lbs by TKO at 2:51 in round 5 of 15

• Date: 1987-06-15
• Location: Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
• Referee: Frank Cappuccino
• Judge: Tom Kaczmarek 38-38
• Judge: John Stewart 39-37
• Judge: Harold Lederman 37-39

• Program Cover, Photo #2, Photo #3, Photo #4, Photo #5

Notes

• Spinks was stripped of the IBF heavyweight title in February of 1987 for refusing to fight Tony Tucker, the #1 IBF contender. Don King won the right to promote a Spinks-Tucker title fight with a purse bid of $711,000. In the case of a purse bid, the purse is divided 75 percent to 25 percent in favor of the champion. That would mean $533,250 for Spinks. Instead of fighting Tucker, Spinks fought Cooney for a guaranteed purse of $4 million. Cooney was guaranteed $2.5 million.
• Spinks was still the lineal World Heavyweight Champion and his bout with Cooney was recognized as a world title fight by 18 states and The Ring Magazine.
• Cooney had been out of the ring for 13 months and had fought just three times since losing to Larry Holmes in June of 1982.
• Spinks was an 8 to 5 underdog.
• Cooney was down twice in round five.