Was Tyson-Spinks fixed?

It is actually. Who beats fighters before they even step in the ring?

Its a testament to how good he was.

 

"A Lot of your opponents seem to be intimidated Before they get into the ring almost, or when they caught your eye when you got in the ring, are you aware of that?".
"I'm not aware of that but Im aware they became more intimidated when I land my fist against their jaw, I'm aware of that"... Mike tyson.

 

Would the outcome have been any different had they met several times or was Tyson's style just all wrong for Spinks like Foreman against Frazier?

 

:good Great quote! It was with punches that Tyson sent his opponents to the canvas . Nobody wins fights only with intimidation ...

 

But then people say that only 19 months later he was out of his prime. I don't know, I tend to think his Spinks win was a legit, very good win, but beating up an older former light heavyweight doesn't get me too excited.

 

i thought he had bad knees by that point? (honest question)

 

The only time I can remember a fighter being clearly afraid of another fighter was Kingfish Levinsky fighting Joe Louis. There is no question Levinsky was scared ****less. You can see his knees buckling at just the anticipation of taking a Louis punch and he was literally cowering in fear at times of their brief contest. Not nearly as obvious but Gene Fullmer was, in my opinion, clearly scared of **** Tiger after the first few rounds of their first contest. He started to run (never saw Gene do that before) and continued running all through their second fight. Just trying to survive. Draw my ass :-( In their third fight Gene stopped running and got absolutely thrashed. Fullmer's greatest asset was his strength and he found out very early he could not match Tiger's strength on the inside. Once that happened he ran out of ideas.

 

Spinks had bad knees for as long as I can remember watching him. Something about running on concrete in heavy boots when he was young and he always seem to have those strapping on both knees in his fights.

Still, he was never that much of a mover around the ring and anyway Tyson especially on that night, was alway good at cutting off the ring against movers.

 

I agree with your point for the most part. Did Spinks really believe he beat Larry both times? Both were close fights. Also take into account Tyson steamrolled Holmes it's plausible that doubt would have already been in Spinks' mind. I wasn't alive at the time so I wouldn't know

Spinks seemed happy to exchange, but reacted badly to a short right hand inside and foolishly backed straight to the ropes. Tyson showed good finishing skills in all fairness. Landed a few good body shots and a big uppercut and dropped his man. Took his oppurtunity early. Spinks' was dwarfed by Tyson in terms of power and didn't have a distinctive speed advantage. I don't think Spinks realised what he was up against and when he found out it was to late to do anything about it.

I certainly don't see a fix, Spink's was simply outgunned. But I guess I can only look at the fight with hindsight. Which is why It's hard to see how Spinks could ever have a chance in this one, but that's not to discredit Tyson's win in any way, shape or form

 

The truth is that as good a fighter as Spinks was, and he was an ATG light heavy, he caught Holmes when he was old and past it, eeked a decision the first time, and probably deserved to lose the rematch, then fought a nobody in Tangstad and a washed up Gerry ****ey, then was inactive for a long time. So then you take a blown up light heavy who is inactive and put him in with a prime active killing machine and you get what you get. Fear had nothing to do with it. Before that fight took place I predicted it wouldn't last past the 2nd round, which is why I didn't pay to see it live. I knew it would be a mismatch and it was.

 

1) There is absolutely not fixed. Where is there anything esle but the most cynical, automatic skepticism due to a quick KO?
I think it was very uncommon toi believe it fixed.

2) It was a decent victory, & you cannot at all blame Tyson that Spinks was not great. The worst you could say is that Holmes deserved the 2nd fight & Spinks had limited Hw experience. But he was undefeated, could have fought more often but last beat ****ey, & he was worthy of the match.

Likely more so than Williams vs. Ali, & cna you blame Ali that Williams was liteally shot? He showed his greatness against other fighters around that time, also good but not great, like Folley.

Who was 194 lbs. if memory serves, & 6' 1". Spinks a blown up lhw? Well he lifted hard to gain weight, but did not look at all super pumped or big for his frame, & was 6' 2" & 212 lbs. He banged with Holmes & ****ey, he was not undersized except by the standards of the HWs that just began to be prominent in the '80's.

Older? He recently had turned 31, c'mon.

3) He WAs afraid, I am surprised so many believe otherwise.
Appearences can be deceiving or subkective, but yes, he seemed fearful. Allegedly did not want to come out of the dressing room. But nobody heard his quote later about having mich fear? From his Wikipedia page:


Afterwards Spinks said: "I came to fight like I said I would. I just tried to do what I knew I had to do, and that was fight. Not that I stood toe to toe with him, but I tried to take the shot and I came up short." Futch opined that Spinks was undone because he abandoned his gameplan of boxing and moving early on and instead tried to win Tyson's respect.[39] Spinks later conceded that "fear was knocking at my door big time."[40] Tyson said "The first punch I threw, he wobbled a bit. I knew right there I had him,"[38] adding "my trainer told me before the fight that he bet both our purses that I would knock him out in the first round. So I went out and knocked him out in the first round."[41] Tyson dedicated the win to Jimmy Jacobs, who had died in March.[42]

 

Sure Tyson fixed it, he fixed it with a right hand.

 

This.

 

Klompton you are mostly right, & I was an adult then.
Though your description of Spinks does exaggerate his accomplishments & the challenge, he still had few HW fights, ****ey was shot, he really beat a past prime Holmes 1 out of 2...

Only other quibble, it is a referenced fact that Spinks was scared.
As I posted above, he admitted it later. See the quote again above or here.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson_vs._Michael_Spinks[/url]

 

to be fair, who wouldn't be scared. Tyson had just destroyed the baddest men on the planet as barely out of his teens.

imagine what you'd be facing if you expected to be fighting a more improved version of that...how are you supposed to fightthat??

anyone who wasn't scared going into the ring with him, probably needed locking up.