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

No One? Ok, Ill have to dig out my issues of Ring Magazine and Boxing Illustrated that were dedicated SOLELY to that one fight. When was the last time you can remember a boxing magazine dedicating an entire regular issue to one fight? In both of those issues they have experts polls and they were almost fifty fifty with many comparing it to Ali-Frazier 1 in style and significance. I will dig those issues up and quote from them, although I know I dont have to, anyone stating that it wasnt a big, important fight either wasnt alive at the time or is putting spin on it for some other reason...


P.S. I had Spinks clearly winning the first fight and the second a draw.

 

Sorry, but very very very few picked Spinks and it was considered a mismatch. I do remember reading one single freakish article, maybe in the Ring where some guy picked Spinks and mapped out something very close to what actually happened.

 

A lot of people have forgotten how very very very upset Larry got when he found out that he had too split the purse 50/50- $10M each, that just added another very large chip to both his shoulders:smoke

 

True enough. Trouble was, tho Holmes was the champ Cooney was the draw

 

Yeh, what with Cooney being eastcoast plastic oirish so being able to bring all those Boston/NY $$$$ to the table, it did'nt hurt having Teddy Kennedy invite him up for a photo shoot either i remember poor old Larry spitting feathers over that & the "Great White" conspiricy, you think you gunna lynch this N..g.r, well you just picked on the wrong N..g.r, i don't think Larry would shake hands with Cooney at the presser or weigh-in as much a Cooney tried to be civil it just wound Larry up even tighter

 

Tyson was between a 4-1 and 6-1 favorite for this fight. I know there people here and there picking the longshot, but it was nowhere near 50-50. Tyson was favored by a clear majority.

 

O...K.... Thats why at the time it was the biggest fight in the HISTORY of boxing with unprecedented numbers across the board... Sure... it was a complete mismatch, just like Tyson-Frazier, which is why Tyson Frazier a was sellout with record breaking numbers across the board... Oh wait... It wasnt... Hmmmm. SOMEONE must have thought the match would be good and competetive or it wouldnt have held the PPV record for nearly ten years and shattered all records for $, views, etc before. Check the numbers, they dont lie. Or maybe you think people just couldnt find anything else entertaining to watch that night. By this logic Roy Jones, who was being matched with stiffs for ten ****ing years would have been the biggest box office draw in the history of the world, in fact he wasnt. His box office numbers across the board were pretty dismal in comparison to some of the other stars active at the same time. The question was: How big of a deal was Tyson-Spinks to the mainstream public? You wanna deny that it wasnt HUGE to the mainstream public? Then explain why night and day they were running commercials, news programs, magazine articles, newspaper columns, etc devoted exclusively to this fight? A supposed mismatch. Hey, you wanna argue mismatch? Go ahead. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. You wanna argue the mainstream public didnt think it was the biggest thing since Santa Claus started handing out presents? You look ridiculous. Thats how big it was.

 

No, it was the biggest fight in history because Tyson was one of the biggest superstars in history, and a great crowd-pleaser. Plus the fight promised to settle the HW championship picture for the first time in a decade.

Of course not, Tyson was still only on the way up then, and there were no titles on the line.

"Someone" doesn't equate to a 50-50 fight, or even close to that, which is what you said it was.

So who and where were all these people who picked Spinks to win, and why didn't they put their money where their mouths were?

Yes, numbers like 4-1, 5-1, and 6-1, which is what Tyson was favored by.

Because he was boring as hell and fighting in a much less celebrated division.

Which is an entirely separate issue from which fighter most people picked to win.

No, and no one else has either, so why are you pretending people have? Just to divert the issue?

Because it was Tyson, and because of what was on the line.

No I don't "wanna", and no one does either. You're just ranting like a maniac to divert the issue.

Take a look in the mirror.

 

3 1/2 - 1 at fight time.

 

Here's a fine read for people to get a feel for the fight

[url]http://ringsidereport.com/rsr/news.php?readmore=1619[/url]

 

I picked Spinks. And although not in the majority, I was one of a significant minority who figured Spinks could win the fight on the back foot.

Spinks was only 7/2 against, which for a Tyson fight was close, as I remember Tyson being 25/1 on against Tucker...

 

Funnily enough i started a thread about this a few days ago
its about what different peoples opinions were regarding the fight.....

[url]http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=265927[/url]

 

My dad, who isn't a boxing fan at all, saw that fight. It's the only boxing match on his ledger. He saw Ali fight people, but never paid any attention to it or knew who the opponents were.

My grandpa, who listened to Joe Louis defeat Schmeling on the radio, made sure he didn't miss the Tyson v. Spinks fight. He told me it was something you dream of seeing. It had a touch of the "Fight of the Century" before the event happened (this is what he said). He felt that Spinks would be able to put up a valiant scrap going down. Then it just turned out to be a quicky of a fight. However, he said "Look at the variables before the fight started, you had the former LHW and current lineal HW champ going up against the man that had all the belts in HW, what's bad about that?". For the record, it was the first HW fight he watched since Ali lost to Leon Spinks (he thought that was a farce).

 

I suppose theTyson Spinks fight could be compared to a latter day Harrison Haye fight




:nut