Tyson V Spinks. 35 Years on.!

Morning,Fergy. Like most I was confident that Tyson would win but thought that Spinks would make him work hard for the victory. Maybe even taking 'Iron Mike' the distance. But as Reg Gutteridge said as soon as Tyson knocked Spinks down "This guy does n't mess around"

I thought at the time that Tyson would be on top for a few years after that performance. A great fighter but could have been more so.

 

Michael Spinks stopped Gerry Cooney before the Mike Tyson so you would have thought he was confident going into that bout?

What isn't often talked about is Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Williams with a jab on the Tyson- Spinks undercard.

 

At that time, I was a 12 year kid that had just started boxing two years prior and I was living 10 minutes away from where Spinks grew up. I remember the local news always hyped Michael whenever he fought and I knew a lot of people that thought was going to expose Tyson as a limited fighter that couldn't deal with the skillset of Spinks. Man were they wrong! I remember my dad bitching about how much the PPV cost which I think was $35 at that time and being pissed that the fight didn't even last a round. Michael simply did not look confident or comfortable and was beaten before the fight even started.

 

Yeah come to think of it, he never was particularly fired up when he entered the ring.

 

While Mike was in the ring beating his chest like King Kong, Godzilla Douglas was plotting his attack on Toyko.

 

I expected Tyson to win, but Spinks had a mystique about him, and was seriously talked up in the American boxing magazines I was reading at the time. He was unbeaten and had never been off his feet, and looked great blasting out Cooney. The prevailing question was how Tyson would cope with Spinks awkwardness. None of the pundits were talking about a 1 round blowout.

 

We were on the same page for both fights, I thought Spinks could use his style to frustrate Mike for a while before he got clipped' Cooney? I actually thought Gerry would take his head off the first left hook that landed. However he looked soft physically and mentally for that fight.

 

God I feel old. I can remember watching the Tony Tubbs fight and them mentioning that Spinks was next. Some days that feels like it wasn’t so long ago and others it seems like an eternity

 

A unique situation. Michael Spinks, the IBF champion, remains without the belt, but he did not lose the belt in the fight, but bureaucratically. He remains the lineal champion. Defending that belt against undisputed champion (as far as boxing federations are concerned) Mike Tyson; and we all know how the story ended after a minute and a half. Only once in HW history did a similar (not the same) story repeat itself, and that was FOTC (Frazier has the belt, but is not the lineal champion).

 

Agree with Ikrasevic about circumstances leading up to fight regarding lineal, unified champion recognition. As for the fight I must admit I wanted Spinks to win which did cloud my judgement. At the least I thought Spinks would really make Tyson work for a victory. Larry Holmes called it correctly in terms of result. But how many thought it would be an absolute destruction job? Still can’t be it’s been 35 years.