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

Explain Why?:hey

 

Holmes - Cooney wasn't just MASSIVE, it was electric!

Consider just some of the following

Cooney had been ko'ing most his opponents in frightening style, at a time when the heavies needed both a decent and interesting challenger for Holmes and someone to spark fear into opponents.

Holmes was a VERY unpopular champ at this time, hated by many.

The whole racial thing, black vs white including the "Great White Hope" angle. I cannot overstate the magnitude of this at the time.

Cooney also had an interesting story, white, heritage, the gentle giant assassin.

You are judging this fight by what Cooney did in hindsight post Holmes. You'd be amazed how many experts, let alone fans, bought into the Cooney enigma. The sheer amount of experts picking Cooney to win this, most by KO, would shock you.

Simply put, Holmes was ridiculously underrated whilst hindsight has shown us Cooney to be overrated, even given his still excellent promise post Holmes.

 

Yeah, Holmes v Cooney was a huge event.

 

Holmes Cooney had massive crossover interest. Cooney fought a good fight that night but faded...

 

Grant Im surprised by the comments above. To say no one gave Spinks a shot... Well, you know better. This fight was considered a near fifty/fifty proposition. You know that. If you want to character assassin Spinks for his fights with Holmes thats fine but as stated above press polls at the time showed a near 50/50 split with most people comparing it to Frazier/Ali 1 in terms style and importance.

 

Holmes-Cooney was big because America wanted a white champion. No black fighter was going to live up to Muhammad Ali, but a white-skinned boy with a big punch can trump Ali. And it didn't have to be Sylvester Stallone make-believe with Gerry Cooney around.

But Cooney failed, and they were left with Holmes and other black heavyweights.
Tyson arrived in 1986 and was hyped massively, because when all's said and done race alone isn't that important in boxing, even to those who think it is. People just want to be entertained. Knockouts, excitement, a badass kid punching someone's lights out with devastating speed and power every few weeks on television.

 

Ridiculously overhyped. Cooney had only beaten minor leaguers and hasbeens. I said to everybody at the time,that there was no way that he was ready for Holmes.

 

It was big only because of how boring the division was at that time.

 

yeah, most tyson fights are big anyway but because while spinks wasnt considered a dominant hwavyweight, he still was considered the champ by ring and he was a unbeaten and a great fighter at light heavyweight. after tyson crushed him, people really believe tyson was unbeatable. then 3 fights later, the whole world is shocked.

 

To add to what other posters have already said, a lot of people were expecting a Marciano Charles I type showdown.

 

it didnt matter who tyson was fighting. tyson himself was the event but it just so happens that spinks was a decent opponent who had a claim to be the champ because he beat holmes. plus he like tyson, was unbeaten

 

But hyped it was, regardless.

Cooney had two names on his record, and tho old and past it they were at least recognisable names none the less.

 

Yeah, it wasn't necessarily popular because it was going to be close fight.....it was popular because of Tyson himself. Tyson-mania was peaking at this time, and he had transcended boxing and all other fighters before him in popularity. Add in that Spinks was a good, unbeaten contender, and that the fight was billed as a title fight of sorts, and you have a Mega-Fight.

 

Klompton, a fifty/fifty fight ? No One and I mean no one was picking Spinks or even thought he had a chance. I'm not character assasinating Michael, I liked Michael. Liking him has nothing to do with the facts. He squeezed by a highly unpopular, aging Holmes in an unimpressive fashion, never hurting him and winning ulgy. The rematch was pretty much robbery. They then hand pick Tangstad as a safety opponent and then the highly inactive Cooney. At the same time Tyson was crushing Berbick, Thomas, Tubbs, Holmes, Briggs in highlight film fashion. Again I stress, the hype was all about Tyson. I don't think one out of ten gave Spinkls a shot at winning.

Remember this article from Sports Illustrated the days before the fight ? Wasn't exactly Ali/Frazier 1 ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067451/index.htm

And this ... Spinks was a 4 - 1 underdog ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067467/index.htm

 

I utterly disagree. I thought Holmes was unimpressive, but Spinks was superb given his situation and i thought he beat Holmes most impressively. I mean at various points he was unloading freely against a much bigger man. He was just plain too good on the night vs a slow motion Holmes.

He was about 7-1 odds, i'm not sure he could have done much more :huh

175'er moving up against an unbeaten ATG heavy, and Spinks had never even fought at the weight :blood

I agree the rematch was a robbery.

Edit - i see you found 4-1 odds, not much diff tho and the early market had 7-1.