How big of a deal was Tyson-Spinks to the mainstream public?

It was so big it made the cover of TIME magazine, with a close-up of a glaring Tyson.

I don't think I'm wrong in thinking this was the first time a pro boxing championship fight did so since the Fight of the Century.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,149541,00.html

 

It was all hype. Spinks dropped out of the tourney knowing that any of the top contenders could have eaten him alive. He wanted one fight for the most money and was then out of there. Look at who he fought...

He protected himself until only Tyson was left. Then win or lose he had a huge pension pay out. Tyson got him out of there. You couldn't ask for more than that BUT I never considered it a live fight.

Spinks beat an old Holmes. Squeaked by in the rematch. Then fought low risk fighters.

Spinks had a great pedigree and there was always that "well you never know..."

 

Talk about revisionist history and 20/20 hindsight... :-(

 

It was the last proper Superfight, nothing since compares to it, as a worldwide mainstream fight.

 

In my lifetime and in my observation of public perception the biggest fights have been:
1. Ali vs Frazier I
2. Ali vs Foreman
3. Cooney vs Holmes
4. Leonard vs Duran I
5. Tyson vs Spinks
6 Leonard vs Hearns I
7. Leonard vs Duran II
8. Hagler vs Leonard
9. Thrilla In Manila
10. De La Hoya vs Mayweather

 

Massive. Everybody was talking about. We were obsessed.

 

That "well you never know" was actually "may have been the greatest light heavyweight of all time."

 

Klompton, I've got a lot of respect for you and your knowledge of the sport. All I can do is say how I honestly felt about the fight at the time.

I never saw Spinks as any kind of threat at all. Most of all though I could see that Spinks knew this too.

 

It still beats me after all these years,why the Holmes-Cooney fight was given such a massive build up. I knew Holmes would win it comfortably. All the other ones you mentioned deserved their status as superfights.

 

It was Humongous:deal

Back then all Tyson fights were a Tsunami event of Global proportions & this one especially as poor Michael Spinks had the backing of the "RING" mag as genuine lineal champ so relegating Tyson too the role of "usurper" & that insult only took 91 seconds to correct:bbb

 

Not really.
A lot of people were talking about Spinks being a weak champion who hadn't faced ANY young heavyweight contender. Personally, I think Spinks was pretty good, but his rematch with Holmes and his choice of Tangstad as a challenger, and the understanding that he wasn't going to fight Douglas, Tucker or C.Williams (the IBF top 3 at the time), and the withdrawal from the HBO series, made a lot of commentators consider him a "blown-up light-heavyweight" who'd have a hard time beating any of the young contenders, nevermind Tyson. I'm talking 1986-'87.

I think Butch Lewis was a genius. Spinks' demolition of Cooney was impressive but what really made Spinks' stock rise was Tyson eliminating everyone else while Spinks held firm to the RING magazine's linear belt and his undefeated record. The same doubts over Spinks didn't go away, but the fight took on massive significance, since people were desperate for a real challenge for Tyson, and Spinks was in fact genuinely a champion !

 

Exactly how I saw it.

 

The convergence of the stars allowed it.
-Two undefeated heavyweights involving...
-an unpopular champion who lived in the shadow of Muhammad Ali versus...
- a white, personable Irish New Yorker matched in an event featuring...
-the teaming of promotional skills of Don King and Dennis Rappaport using race as a selling tool set in...
-the biggest outdoor boxing venue in Las Vegas history during a period of...
-rapidly expanding news coverage with cable television (ESPN launched in 1979 and CNN in 1980)

 

No one thought Spinks had a shot going in v.s. Tyson. It was simply the title unifying bout in the Mike Tyson story. Tyson was red hot, at the height of his popularity and Spinks was the next chapter.

Spinks had sqyeezed by an aging Holmes. His prospects at heavyweight were so weak they matched him up with that Swedish guy no one ever heard of and then a comebacking Cooney. All calculated risk reward. Once he defeated Cooney Lewis would not let him do anything except fight Tyson for the big money. However going into the fight, no one thought Michael would actually win it. It was all about Tyson, Tyson and King, Tyson and Givens, Tyson and Rooney, ect ...

 

Tyson/Holyfield 2 being the exception i should think, or i may be a bit biased seeing i was there:hey:tong

All Tyson fights after he came out of "nick" as well had global coverage up & ending with the ear-bite, even eskimo's & cannibals new who Mike Tyson was