It's a myth that Spinks was scared

This content is protected

The wind from Tyson's punching were powerful that day.

 

This and Wilder vs. Scott were weired equilibrium shots that were real. It was so bad for each of them because neither had settled into the fight yet.

 

Not saying Seldon took a dive, I think fear took over, and I seen views of the ko punch were Tyson outright miss. You can see the shot miss on the overview of the video. Seldon did get hit with other shots, its just the "Ko" punch was the shot that miss.

 

It's overblown

 

I think he was pretty much gone after the first shot. He felt clear in his head, but couldn't control his legs and freaked out instead of handling it like a vet.

 

He was classic scared shitless. Right there with Liston-Patterson.

 

The punch did not miss. You can clearly see it hit the top of his head and slide up and off. I think the punch was better than most but Seldon probably could have got up.

Stay safe buddy, chat soon.

 

To add to the analogy train, if you’re armed with a Ninja Star and the other guy has an AR-15 there is only so much planning to get your chance above 5% lol, it’s possible but a long shot lol like you said the physicality of Spinks limited him this time, Tyson wasn’t like Holmes, Holmes even tried to “monster” Spinks into submission in the opening of fight 2, Tyson was a freak of nature and Spinks was already short of being a “true” HW and whilst I believe Louis on his best night is better then every HW today (H2H) a career of grinding out 250-270lbs opponents with half a foot or more of height on him would take its toll and he’d probably lose to someone surprising? Paez lost to Dorsey, Paez “should’ve” beaten Dorsey but his mind couldn’t get right however “basic” Dorsey’s attack TD’s bull dog attitude and pace was too much “psychic” fatigue, I believe Jorge started to check out, I don’t think it’d improbable on a bad night “prime” or not Chisora could hustle Louis and look very good for the same reasons as the above example + 50-70lbs. I prefer to rate HW’s like the flyweights, due to the smaller pool of “unique” sized individuals there isn’t as much competition for the top guy of every era and he should be rated on his consistency and domination. Myung Yuh Woo is such an example and perhaps Wilfredo Gomez? 147-160lbs (day of weigh ins) were stacked because that’s around the size of the average in-shape man.

 

Hi Guys.
I am of an age that at both primary and secondary school the teachers could hand out corporal punishment, so that would consist of either your hand ( palm up ) or your backside being hit with a slim wooden cane, normally six strokes, or if you were deemed really unruly it would be twelve, so if for argument's sake you got into a fight in the morning, your class teacher would say you will report to the headmaster after school ( 4-15 ) to receive your canning, for most of the day you were going about your lessons, chatting with friends, and not thinking about what fate awaited you later in the day, but around 3-30 you found yourself glancing at the class clock quite a lot, think " High noon " at 4 you were feeling like you needed a poo, the walk to his office was undertaken in slow motion, all different thoughts flashing threw your mind, should I have borrowed a friends pants, maybe stuff extra toilet paper down your trousers, feign sickness hoping the head will have pity on you, or just run out of school, and leave home, at the moment he opens his door and beckons you inside your a quivering wreck, you can't hear nothing, you cant see nothing, you are worthless, a 3 year old could have the better of you, you are about to be punished, and there is nothing you can do about it, Spinks was stepping into that room, and there was nothing he could do about it either, and he knew it......
stay safe guys, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Michael Spinks may have been scared, but he certainly did not fight scared. He took his shots at Tyson and did not back up, that is not what I call fighting scared. In my opinion, Tyson's second most impressive win after the Larry Holmes knockout.

 

We had a principal called Mr Bird in primary school. Not only did he dish out the good old cane, but for lesser deeds he made great use of "horse bites". In Aussie slang this was a massive slap to the back of the upper leg with a slightly cupped palm. Whilst i never got the cane i did get some of these bad boys. I can't remember if they came in 6's like the cane, probably. A few of us were running around mad playing tag on the parade ground, unfortunately we ran over the top of a girl. Even more unfortunate was that it happened in front of Mr Bird. I was somewhere between grade 5 and grade 7 at the time. Over he came. To add to the drama almost the entire school was watching. We all got a bunch of horse bites. The hit area was red for some time, they did actually hurt a bit. I got ridiculed by a few mates as, unbeknownst to me, i nervously lifted the leg of my shorts where he was about to hit me hahaha. Pretty stupid, having a bit of material covering a little bit of the slapped area would have been a good thing

The worst caning i saw was on the class trouble maker. He was born to get into trouble. He did so many stupid things, and even if he meant well it was doomed to end in disaster. He was to get "6 of the best" in front of class. By the time he reached about five he had tears streaming down his face and kept, almost reflexively, pulling his hand away. Mr Bird would chastise him, telling him to keep his hand STILL!!!!!! He pulled his hand away a few times before they finally got the final one completed. We called them "the cuts". It was horrific to watch, those final couple. So many tears, so much fear, and it was prolonged by the twitching hand. It was certainly one hell of a deterrent to future bad behavior.

It didn't always go the teachers way. A good mate got kept down in grade 7. His father died early in the year and he went off the rails a bit. Who could blame him, he was a kid. Anyway the teacher, Mr Ross, was every kids nightmare. He was loud and abusive. It culminated in the mate attacking him, and tho there was a large size differential, Ross ended up being pushed thru a window. Not fully, but it smashed. There were no injuries but the mate was expelled for a good chunk of time lol.

 

Haha, back in junior high (grades 7-9 for us, aka middle school) we had a physical education coach who was very, very old school. If you got into a fight in class, you had two choices — either take the wooden paddle to the backside (however-many strokes, I do not recall) OR he had an old pair of boxing gloves and the two kids who got into it could put them on, everyone got in a circle to form the ‘ring’ and they’d go at it until it was settled.

Also, you could challenge someone to a fight for whatever reason and go put on the gloves voluntarily after school. The old coach served as referee.

Well, one day the younger brother of the best athlete in school — bigger, stronger, more athletic than anyone else, star of the football team, etc — comes up to me at lunch in the cafeteria and challenges me to put the gloves on. He was I think a grade behind me and his brother was a grade ahead iirc, and I’d never had any beef with him whatsoever, so no idea what made him decide to do this much less why he picked me. He wasn’t cut from the same cloth as his brother, not an athlete at all iirc.

So when challenged, you either say yes or you’re a chicken**** and before lunch is over everyone in the whole school knows it. So I accept … not like I was afraid of him.

We go meet and put the gloves on. My dad had taught me a few basics and sometimes I’d go work out with him at the YMCA and they had a heavy bag and I’d hit it while he watched and gave me pointers … no thought of me being a boxer (although me and my Pop both love boxing), he just came from a generation where part of what a dad did was teach his kid how to fight so he’d know what he was doing if it ever came up (and what kid doesn’t get into a fight or two, at least in those days?).

I don’t remember it vividly, but I do recall he came at me straight off and I stuck out a jab and he ran into it. And however long it lasted, I was just better, a bit bigger and certainly stronger. I knocked him down twice and the second time he quit.

So I’m feeling pretty good about myself, knowing me whipping this guy will be the talk of school the next day. Then it hits me … his brother is going to hear about this and he’s going to kick my ass! I just know that now it’s going to be him coming up to me and challenging me, and I’ve got to either be the chicken**** or I’m going to get beat up, haha. In fact, even my friends are telling me ‘you know his brother is going to come after you now.’

Well I remember ducking him in the hallways and trying to stay out of his way. But come lunchtime, everyone is in the cafeteria and there’s no avoiding it. He walks up to my table and says, ‘I want to talk to you’ and I get up and follow him to some spot away from everyone. Here it is, all eyes are on us, and he’s going to challenge me to box him.

Instead, he says: “I just want you to know I don’t have any problem with you. My brother challenged you. That was his decision. And you beat him fair and square. You don’t have to worry about me,” and walked off.

Thinking back, that was incredibly mature of him. He could have played the classic big brother taking up for younger brother role and it’s what everyone expected.

All I can say is I thought he was a cool guy after that (I don’t think we ever spoke before that or ever again) and I know it was a real relief for me that day.

Thanks for dredging up the memory.

 

No myth. Tyson was an intimidating mofo back then. And still is.

 

That’d make sense if Spinks had actually won — he didn’t. He was visibly shaking in the dressing room and got demolished in 91 seconds. This isn’t like Ali vs. Liston, where Ali said his fear actually helped him and he would've lost if he hadn’t been scared. Spinks’ fear just froze him.